


Reverberations

by laxit21



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Abstract concepts as characters, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Felicity as Death, Flashpoint and the consequences of Flashpoint, Forgiveness, Grim Reapers, Guilt, Havenrock (Arrow), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, So much angst, The premise is weird just go with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2019-07-01 03:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 45
Words: 46,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15766089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laxit21/pseuds/laxit21
Summary: The universe is a funny thing. It follows strange rules that no one is fully aware of. One action can have a plethora long-lasting, far-reaching consequences. The destruction of Havenrock is one such action. Death is a funny thing as well, as someone will soon learn.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story jumps right in at the end of Arrow 4x21 "Monument Point". 
> 
> As an aside, I know the premise for this is kinda out there. Just give it a chance.

Felicity and Noah were busy at work, trying to stop Rubicon from launching. Suddenly, Murmur ran into the room and began shooting. Noah pushed his daughter onto the ground and out of the way. By the time Murmur was handled, an alarm started to sound.

“No. No, no no!” she said as she raced over to the console. “Oh no.”

“What’s happening?” Oliver asked.

“We got every nuke. Except one.” she looked up at the screen. “We lost one. it’s in the air, heading straight for Monument Point.”

Felicity got to work trying to stop the launched nuclear bomb, while Noah set the remaining nukes launch sequence in an infinite loop which would stop the other weapons from launching for another day or so. Lyla wanted to know where Felicity was in stopping the one heading for Monument Point. The problem was, Felicity was nowhere. Nuclear weapons were essentially unhackable, for a reason, and she couldn’t move it off course.

“-which is why I have to move Monument Point instead.” She said as she came to a realization.

“GPS realignment.”

“What do you mean?” Lyla asked.

“As a prank, I once relocated a GPS satellite. Everyone on the eastern seaboard thought they were 20 miles west of their actual location.”

“Do that to the missile, you avoid a direct hit.”

Felicity continued typing, until the location on the screen changed. “That’s it.”

The room fell quiet. Two minutes later, Lyla’s phone rang. “Direct hit on Havenrock. Maximum yield.”

“How many casualties?” Felicity asked.

“Tens of thousands.” She answered. “Monument Point would’ve been a couple million, Felicity.”

“That doesn’t make it any better.” Felicity said before leaving to get some air.

Oliver and Digg went to fight Darhk. Noah looked for a way to make the infinite loop last more than a day. Lyla called the situation room to give her preliminary report. Felicity tried not to think about what she’d just done.

Meanwhile, the fabric of the universe itself was changing. Redirecting that weapon from Monument Point to Havenrock was far more significant on a universal scale than anyone could have predicted.

"Interesting." A being much older the Earth said. "This was not a host I ever expected."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Genesis is stopped, the entities have a discussion and Felicity gets quite a surprise.

The next 24 hours were a blur for everyone in Star City. Anarky destroyed Tevat Noah, and killed Ruve Adams. Darhk then decided to destroy all if humanity with Genesis and not bother to try and rebuild it the way he wanted. He stole the laptop stopping Rubicon and launched all the weapons. He forced Cooper into launching them under threat of death. Felicity talked Cooper into stopping, even though he was killed for doing so. Thanks to her, Curtis and Malcolm’s unusually helpful scathing comment about how easy disarming 15,000 nukes should be, they managed to rig the bombs to detonate in space. Oliver killed Darhk, and the city and the world was saved.

A strange thing happened, however, right before Cooper died. While Felicity was talking to Cooper, trying to convince him not to help Darhk anymore, for a moment she saw something she couldn't explain. She blinked and his face became skeletal. It was gone a millisecond later. She decided it was her mind playing tricks on her since the whole world was on the brink.

* * *

 

**Elsewhere**

“I told you she could do it.” One entity said to another.

“I never said she couldn’t. I merely said that Felicity Smoak is the most unlikely host I could think of.”

“And its unfair to say ‘I told you so’ given that you know everything.” A third entity said. “When do you think she will realize?”

“Soon, if she has not already. She missed the first sign because it was 'the end of the world’, the next ones are not so easily ignored.” The first said. "Still, one of us should approach her. Lest the secret get out."

* * *

 

**Star City**

Oliver stood in front of Laurel’s grave and started to speak. “I know you wouldn’t approve of what I did. I know that its not what you would’ve wanted. Me killing Darhk, but you were always better than me, Laurel. that’s what I loved most about you.”

“You okay?” Felicity asked walking up.

“No, its- Thea and John.”

“Them leaving has to be a blow.”

“They’re leaving because of their own personal darkness. I just cant help but think they were infected by mine.”

“Maybe. Like you said, maybe you can’t become a hero without succumbing to the darkness even a little bit, but you were able to defeat Darhk by giving the city its hope back.”

“You’re saying its not black and white.”

“I’m saying, there’s a man who killed Darhk in cold blood. And that same man stood on top of a car and gave the city its hope back. What you’re feeling isn’t darkness, it’s a schism. Youre at war with two sides of yourself.”

Before Oliver could respond, his phone rang. The head of the city council wanted to speak with him, so he said goodbye to Felicity and went to meet him. Felicity stood at the grave a little longer. She didn’t quite know what to say. After some time, Felicity said goodbye and turned to walk away.

“Do me a favor,” a voice, heartbreakingly familiar said from behind her. Felicity turned around. “Tell Ollie it’s not his fault, and keep an eye on my dad.”

“Laurel?” Felicity said. “What? How can I-?”

“You can see me?”

Felicity nodded. A moment later, Laurel was gone. “Great, I’m losing my mind.”

Later that night, after assuring Oliver that she wasn’t going anywhere, Felicity went back to the loft. She hadn't told Oliver what she thought she saw in the cemetery. She wasn't sure it wasn't due to an adrenaline crash or being exhausted. It wouldn't have been the first time her mind started to play tricks on her. She opened the closet to put her jacket away, and her eyes caught the glint of something metal. She reached in and pulled it out.

“What the frack-? How did-?”

“Hello, Death.” An inhuman voice said from behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity gets some answers, they aren't very helpful.

“Hello, Death.” An inhuman voice said from behind Felicity. The voice was actually more of a combination of voices, several people all speaking at once. She turned and saw an older-looking gentleman in a black suit. He looked at her like she was an old friend he hadn’t seen for a very long time.

“What do you mean Death?” the blonde asked fearfully. “Are you- are you the Grim Repear?”

The man chuckled, like Felicity’s questions were part of some inside joke he was remembering. “No, I certainly am not Death.”

“Then, why did you say ‘Hello, Death’?”

“Because you are Death and wished to greet you properly.” He said walking past her to take a seat on the couch.

“What do you- I’m not Death.” She yelled. “Who are you anyway?”

“I am known by many names. You may call me Fate.”

“Ok, so you’re Fate and I’m Death?” She said before she started talking to herself. “Great, I’ve actually lost my mind.”

“I assure you, you are perfectly sane. And yes, you are Death. How else could you explain the scythe in your hand?” he pointed to the object she was holding. “Or the fact that you spoke with someone deceased earlier today? Or the vision you had shortly before Cooper Seldon died?”

“How can I be Death? I’m just Felicity Smoak. Besides, Death isn’t a person.”

“Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Death is one of the primordial forces of the universe, much like I am. It exists in one form or another for all of time and space. At this moment, Death has taken physical form, as you.”

“How-? Why-? This didn’t happen randomly did it? I was chosen or something happened to make me be Death.”

“No, this was not random. The event that led to you becoming Death, or more accurately Death choosing you as its host, was your decision to destroy Havenrock.”

“I didn’t destroy Havenrock, Damien Darhk did.”

“No, he corrupted Rubicon. The failsafe launched the missile. You were the one who sent it to Havenrock.” Fate said calmly.

“I didn’t- I didn’t want to send it there. If it had hit Monument Point, millions would’ve died.”

“I know. You wanted to save as many people as possible. You had good intentions, but as humans say ‘the road to Hell is paved with good intentions’. You were chosen because of what you did, not because of what you wanted to do.”

“That doesn’t explain why Havenrock means I’m Death now.”

“Because what happened shows that you have the right…temperament to do the job.”

“What does that mean? What job?”

“The cycle of life and death is part of the natural order. Death’s job is to ensure that everything eventually ends and all living things die. If there is no Death, the cycle doesn’t end, and the natural order is disrupted.”

“So, because of what I did, I have to kill people to keep the universe in balance? No thanks.”

“First of all, you cannot turn down the job. You are Death, you cannot change that. Second, as Death, you do not need to kill anyone, nor will you. You exist so that death occurs, and the cycle of life is complete. You are also responsible for helping maintain the natural order, along with myself and a handful of others.”

“What did you mean, when you said I had the right temperament?”

“Let me pose a question or two to you. if you had just died, and someone needed to lead you into the hereafter, would you rather it be someone like you, kind and compassionate, or someone like Damien Darhk, who doesn’t value life? Would you want your death, the manner and cause, being decided by someone who enjoys killing or one who takes no pleasure from it? Death has a job to carry out, and not every person can do it.”

“I still don’t see how Havenrock means I’m Death now.”

“I will tell you, at a different time.” He said. “I came here to reveal the truth to you, and I have. I will be going now. Remember, the natural order must be maintained.”

“Wait, can I-.” He was gone before she could ask the question.

He reappeared a second later. “Two last things of note. First, I would advise against letting anyone among the living know who you truly are. Second, the scythe can and will kill anything in existence that is not a primordial entity like you and I. You must keep it with you at all times, but do not use it unless you have to.”

“How am I supposed to hide a fracking scythe?” she asked angrily.

“I am certain you will figure it out.” He answered. “Best of luck.” He vanished again.

Felicity began pacing the loft as soon as Fate left. “Ok, so I’m Death now. Or am I? How do I know I’m not hallucinating? Or that this isn’t some sick joke? I mean, I don’t know why someone would play a joke like that, but there are messed up people in the world. If I am Death, does that mean I can’t die? Does that mean I can bring people back to life? Can the living see me? Does it-?”

Her babbling to herself was interrupted by a knock on the door. Felicity went to open it and saw Oliver standing there. Her eyes weren’t drawn to his face, instead she was staring at something above him. Right above his head, there was a digital clock. And it was counting down. It would be years, if not decades, before it hit zero but it was still disturbing to see.

“Hey, I- everything ok?” he noticed her staring. Well, now she knew the living could see her, which was sort of a relief.

“Yeah,” she answered, shaking her head once and looking him in the eye, “just, it’s been a rough few days. Understatement of the year, I know.”

“Yeah. I wanted to- we didn’t really talk about Havenrock.”

“Not tonight Oliver.” she said. “I- I can’t and I don’t want to talk about Havenrock, what I did, what I had to do, tonight ok?”

He nodded, left and Felicity was alone once again. She needed to know more about what was going on, but she didn’t know where to start. “How do I even start figuring this out?”

 _Relax._ A voice in her head said. _This is a matter of instinct, not conscious thought._

“Who-?”

_I think you already know what I am. You are a smart woman, that is part of the reason you were chosen._

“So, you’re Death. The real Death.”

_There is only one Death. You are the ‘real Death’ as am I. We are one and the same._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity has a new experience, which makes her think.

Felicity spent the rest of the day researching as much as she could about being Death. Unsurprisingly, nearly all the information she found was unhelpful. There were plenty of myths about the Grim Reaper, but they were just that, myths. She couldn’t prove or disprove anything about her new ‘job’ right away. She briefly wondered what exactly she was supposed to do. Fate said she just needed to exist, that she didn’t have to reap souls, but something told her the job was more than just existing so people would die. She was curious and a little worried about what that ‘something more’ was.

Some of her questions were answered several hours later. Felicity was sitting on her computer, wondering what she was going to do about a job and money when she felt a weird sensation. It was almost like something was pulling her away from the loft and towards somewhere else, yet she didn’t move.

She blinked and opened her eyes in a hallway. It looked like a hospital of some kind. She could hear something happening in one of the rooms and moved towards that door. She found herself watching a team of doctors trying to revive a woman in a hospital bed. A man, probably her husband or boyfriend, was off to the side, yelling at them to do something. The woman flatlined and the head doctor announced her time of death. Felicity felt a tingling sensation in her fingers she couldn’t explain. Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her.

“What-? Where-?” she turned and saw a woman, the same woman who was in the bed. Except she looked much healthier now. “Am I dead?”

Felicity didn’t know what she was supposed to say, so she ran on instinct. “I’m afraid so.” Felicity remarked. “I’m very sorry.”

“No, I- I need more time, I’m not ready to go.” The woman argued. “You can- you can send me back.”

Felicity thought she was right. Dying so young was sad and she should’ve gotten to live longer. Her instinct disagreed. Dying young was sad, but it was this woman’s time. She could bring her back, but she shouldn’t.

_She died so young. It’s not fair._

_Nothing ever is. It is her time. You cannot send her back._

“I’m sorry Allison, I can’t do that.” she told the woman. Felicity truly was sorry.

“How do you know my name?”

“I am Death. I know everyone’s names.” She said calmly.

“You don’t understand. I need more time, I deserve more time. I didn’t- I’m only 26. I didn’t get-“

“You got what everyone gets: one lifetime. No more, no less.” Felicity said softly. “I’m sorry I can’t send you back to the world of the living.”

“Will I-? Do I-? What happens to me now?”

“Now, I help you to the hereafter.”

“What do you mean ‘the hereafter’?” she asked worriedly.

“Your afterlife. Despite what some may think, dying doesn’t mean your soul ceases to exist. You’re dead, and it is time to move on.”

“I- I’m scared.” Allison admitted.

“I know.” Felicity gave a small smile. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to be scared of. Just take my hand.” She held it out to the woman.

“You know, I thought Death would be scarier. I’m sure you get that a lot.” She said as she grabbed Felicity’s hand. The next few moments were a blur. Allison went to the afterlife and Felicity found herself back in her apartment.

“What was that?”

_You reaped your first soul._

“Fate said I didn’t have to reap souls.”

Y _ou do not, but you needed to witness, at least once, what reaping entails. Allison Maxfield was the ideal soul._

“And the things I said?”

_All true, and all your words. I simply helped you find them. She thought, as you did, that death was a scary or evil thing. It is not good or bad, it is just death._

“Do I need to do that, witness the death, of everyone that dies?”

_No, that would be rather time consuming. You will, however, feel when someone dies. You felt it with Allison, that tingling sensation. You felt it before that, but it was not as strong. The closer you are to the deceased physically, the stronger the feeling will be._

“What would’ve happened? If I sent her back?”

_Tragedy. When one disturbs the natural order, the natural order always wins in the end. Remember that._

Felicity practically ran to the lair, hoping to find something, some whisper of criminal activity, to distract her. The city was still reeling from Genesis Day and its criminal element was quiet. Oliver found her sitting in the dark, staring at the wall.

“Hey, Felicity, are you-?”

“What do you think about death?” she asked him, still staring ahead of her. “Does it scare you? Make you angry? If you could meet the Grim Reaper, talk to it, what would you say?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> What do you think Oliver will say?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver talk about death.

Felicity was sitting in the new lair, alone and in the dark when Oliver came in. “Hey, Felicity, are you?”

“What do you think about death?” she asked him, still staring ahead of her. “Does it scare you? Make you angry? If you could meet the Grim Reaper, talk to it, what would you say?”

“What’s this about?”

“What isn’t it about. After everything that’s happened over the last- Laurel was- she’s dead. The people in Havenrock, they’re dead. And those were just in the last two weeks. Death’s kinda been a theme lately.”

“Felicity, you- what happened to Havenrock wasn’t your fault.”

_That’s not what Fate said._ “We’ll agree to disagree on that one.” she told him. “Answer the question. How do you feel about death?”

“I’m not afraid of dying. I was ready to die to stop the Undertaking, I was ready to die when I fought Ra’s and again when I needed to stop the Alpha-Omega virus. I nearly died a thousand times over on Lian Yu. Death doesn’t scare me.”

“But what about someone else’s death? How does that make you feel?”

“How I feel depends on what’s happened, who died and how. With Laurel, Tommy and my mom I was angry. They died because of me, I’d wanna know why it chose them instead. With some others, I felt relief. For some, their deaths meant others would live. Or they weren’t in pain anymore. How I feel is subjective.” 

“It isn’t fair.”

“No, it isn’t. In a perfect world, no one would die before their time. The threats we face wouldn’t exist and kids wouldn’t get cancer. It’s not fair, but then again, neither is life. So, I guess it makes sense, in a sick way.”

_I disagree. Death is fair. It is the only experience every being undergoes. No one dies ‘before their time’ to begin with. That is why it is called ‘their time’._

“What would you say to Death? If you were dying or had died and you met the Grim Reaper, assuming it’s real.” Felicity said. Fate hadn’t told her if there was a way to stop being Death or if she was supposed to do this for the rest of eternity. There was a chance, someday, the soul Felicity appeared to reap would be Oliver’s. Or her mom’s. Or Digg’s or Thea’s or-

_Do not do this. You will work yourself into a panic. As Fate said, you do not have to reap their souls. If you do not wish to escort them to the hereafter, you do not have to._

“I don’t know. Hopefully, I’d be okay with it, with dying. It wouldn’t matter in the end, but I’d rather accept it than be in denial.” He said. “I’d probably ask what happens next. You know I’m not religious or anything, but as I’ve lost more people, I’ve started hoping that there’s a great beyond or whatever where I’ll get to see them again. You?”

She took a deep breath and answered the way she would’ve a week ago, when she wasn’t Death. “I’d be one of the ‘send me back, I need more time’ ghosts. Not because I had regrets or anything, but because I’d be too scared to see what comes next. Or worried about who I left behind. It’s how I’ve always felt about death.”

“So, this isn’t only about Havenrock.” Oliver said.

“No, not only Havenrock. Death seems to follow me everywhere.”

“What do you-?”

“I coded twice after HIVE shot me. Barry got struck by lightning. You’ve nearly died three times in front of me. Ray almost died during his accident and when Maseo shot him. Cooper faked his death once and died for real. My best friend growing up was killed in a car accident when I was 15. Two of my college roommates died while I was at MIT. My stalker from college killed himself. Laurel died. Sara died. Roy’s heart stopped, albeit temporarily, when we gave him the mirakuru cure. Thea was nearly dead before being put into the Lazarus Pit. Cisco died in a timeline Barry erased. That’s nearly every friend or boyfriend I’ve had. Digg is the only person I can think of who hasn’t died or nearly died around me.” she said. “Oh, wait. No, he’s not. We all died when we fought Savage, but Barry time traveled and stopped it.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean death follows you.” Oliver was thinking that the same argument could be said about him. His parents, Thea, Laurel, Sara, Tommy, Shado, they all died. If death was following anyone, it was him.

“What else would you call it? Coincidence? I don’t believe in that much coincidence.”

“I think we just had a year from Hell and now you’re trying to find a logical explanation to something that isn’t logical and can’t be explained. It isn’t weird that you feel like this, but don’t focus on it. it was an impossible situation, and I know you feel guilty. You won’t feel like this forever.”

“I should. I deserve to feel like this for the rest of my life.” she said. “Darhk launched the nuke, I’m the one who sent it to Havenrock.”

“Ok, clearly you aren’t gonna listen to what I say. Take the night off, go home.” Oliver told her.

Felicity let Oliver talk her into going home. To be honest, it was for the best. After finding out she was Death and reaping her first soul, she shouldn’t have been around anyone to begin with. Especially since she realized what the clock above Oliver’s head meant. It was counting down to his death. He still had decades of time, but she’d walked past a few people on her way home who didn’t even have a year left.

Trying to take her mind off of things, she sat down in front of the TV and decided to binge-watch Doctor Who. If anything could get her mind off of things, it was his adventures in the TARDIS. She was three episodes into Tennant’s run when someone appeared next to her. Three someones, actually.

“We have a situation.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> Who do you think the 'three someones' are?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Felicity meets some important beings and they aren't too happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a tad mean towards a certain character. It's also very sad at the end.

“We have a situation.” A voice Felicity didn’t recognize said.

She turned her head and saw three people. Fate was furthest away from her. He looked like he had the last time, sitting there in his black suit. Next to him was a middle-aged woman with red hair and green eyes. The person who spoke, the one sitting next to Felicity, was a man a few years younger than Felicity. He had messy black hair and was staring at her intently. Even though all three appeared calm, she could practically feel the anger coming off of them.

“I’m sorry, who-“

“You know me.” Fate said. “Death, this is Order and Time. They are the primordial entities you have not met yet.”

“Ok, but what’s- he said we have a situation. You three didn’t come here just to say hi.” Felicity said. “Not that I’m not happy to meet either of you.”

“We do have a situation.” Time griped. He sounded more like a petulant teenager than the embodiment of time. “Caused by Bartholomew Henry Allen.”

“What did Barry do?”

“You know the man who caused this?” Order asked.

“He disrupted the natural order.” Fate explained. “He used his….gifts to travel back in time to save his mother from being killed in 2000. In doing so, many events in the subsequent 16 years have been changed. People who should be dead are not, many events that were fated to happen have not come to pass and the longer this….disruption continues, the worse the outcome will be.”

“So, we need to set things right. We can do that, can’t we? I mean, I’m new at this whole Death-thing but ‘primordial entities’ indicates this is in our wheelhouse.” Felicity said.

“No, we will not set things right. Mr. Allen is capable of doing that, we simply need to give him the motivation to do so.” Order said. Felicity looked confused and was about to argue. “We are not meant to directly intervene unless necessary. It has not yet become necessary.”

“Ok, I guess that makes sense. How exactly- what do I do here?”

“As I said, many events since 2000 have been changed. People who should not be dead now are. Their souls must be reaped.” Fate began to say. “If you wish to partake, you may but there are other beings capable of reaping their souls. We came to get your word on something.”

“My word?”

“When one disrupts the natural order, there are always consequences. Mr. Allen’s actions will have consequences even after he sets things right. We would like your assurance that your friendship with him will not shield him from such repercussions.”

“What?” Felicity was having trouble understanding what Fate was implying.

Time sighed. “We want your word that, even though he’s your friend, you won’t do anything to stop him from being punished for what he’s done. And you won’t disrupt the natural order yourself if Barry Allen isn’t the only person you know that’s effected.”

“Ok, yeah. I won’t do that. I’ll let things play out the way they’re supposed to.” she told them. She felt very uneasy about the ‘anyone else affected’ part but couldn’t explain why. “Do any of you know why he went back and saved her? He had a chance last year but didn’t.”

“I think you already know.” Order said. “You felt his father die. He wanted to still have one parent.”

“That can’t be the only-“ Felicity began to say. Then, she felt a burning pain in her chest. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear she was having a heart attack. “What’s happening to me?”

“You are feeling them. All the deaths resulting in Mr. Allen’s actions. You have been feeling them all day, but never at this volume.” Fate said. “We will leave you to recover, but there is something else you should know. When he sets things right, you will remember both timelines.  It is a burden I cannot put into words. We felt you deserved to be warned.” With that Fate, Time and Order vanished as quickly and silently as they had appeared.

Over the next few months, she saw the other three entities from time to time. Occasionally, she would reap a soul, return to her apartment and find one of them there waiting. They discussed what changes had occurred, which ones were permanent and how much time Barry had to fix things. As they grew nearer and nearer to the ‘point of no return’ as Felicity called it, the entities were getting angrier and angrier. Felicity was beginning to get angry too, feeling so many deaths and reaping their souls was beginning to weigh heavily on her. Seeing how they were meant to die, in a world where Barry didn’t do what he did, broke her heart more often than not. Then, one day Fate, Time and Order all showed up at her apartment again.

“Bartholomew Allen has seen the error of his ways. In a few short moments, he will return to the past and undo his previous actions.”

“Good.” Felicity said. She was annoyed with him, and this situation, still but this was good.

“Come. There is something you must do.” Fate told her. He grabbed her shoulder and they all left her apartment. They reappeared outside of another building in Star City. She felt a change in the air. “He has corrected his mistake, but not everything will return to the way it was. This is part of the cost of what he has done. The changes are happening as we speak.”

“Why am I at John and Lyla’s building?” Felicity asked. “Are they- do I- I have to reap one of them don’t I? Either John or Lyla die as a result of some events changing.”

“No, they do not. This is regarding Sara Diggle. As a result of the changes in the timeline, she does not exist. Instead, Lyla Michaels has a son, John Diggle Junior, born November 4, 2014.” Order told her.

“I’m not- I can’t-”

“We did not bring you here to reap her. Being removed from existence is not the same thing as dying. We believe you may wish to say goodbye.” Fate told her. “You do not have to, but this is the last chance you will have.”

Knowing he wasn’t lying, and knowing she’d be the only person to remember Sara, Felicity made her decision. She soon found herself in John and Lyla’s apartment. The family was eating breakfast and she knew they couldn’t see her. She could feel the universe change as the timeline was altered. The ripple effects had almost caught up to the moment of Sara’s birth.

Felicity moved closer and closer to the toddler as she spoke. “I’m so sorry, Sara. I wish I could’ve seen you grow up. I’m gonna miss you a lot. I love you so much. Your mom and dad and Uncle Oliver and Aunt Thea, they all love you so much.”

In the blink of an eye, Sara was gone. A little boy was sitting in the high chair instead. The family seemed just as happy. Felicity wished she was anywhere but there, and was in her loft the next second. She collapsed onto her couch and started sobbing.

The three others looked at her with sadness in their eyes before departing. They hadn’t been mortal beings before becoming Fate, Order and Time respectively. The bodies they used were created by them in order to have a physical body. They didn’t have any connections outside of each other. They didn’t know how this felt for Felicity. As the blonde continued sobbing, she kept getting angrier and angrier at Barry, for what he’d done, for how long he’d waited to set things right, for how selfish his actions really were. There was no way now that she’d stop the other entities from punishing him for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. I know you hate me now.
> 
> This chapter, and how Felicity feels after Flashpoint, is very important for many reasons. I needed to include it in order for some later things to make sense.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity gets some advice and gets some things off her chest.

Felicity let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding as she walked into Starling Memorial Cemetery. She supposed it made sense. Since becoming Death, Felicity had felt drawn to this place. Perhaps it was because everyone there’s souls were already collected. She didn’t need to answer the big questions about what its all about or listen to someone attempt to bargain for more time. They weren’t all at peace, but they weren’t confused or angry either. She could see plenty of souls standing around the graveyard, but none of them spoke or attempted to get her attention.

She soon found herself standing in front of Laurel’s grave. “Hey, I- I’ve been doing as you asked. Your dad- he’s doing about as well as you would expect. It can’t be easy, all the loss he’s been though. We’re all trying to help though.” She took a deep breath. “Frack, I- you’re kinda the only person I can talk to about this stuff. I mean I could talk to Tommy I guess, but I didn’t know him that well and-“

“Nice to see you haven’t changed too much Felicity.” Laurel said, laughing from behind her. “You still babble when you’re nervous.”

“I don’t- I don’t think I can do this. Being Death. It’s-” She couldn’t put it into words. How isolated she felt. How sad reaping souls made her feel. How terrifying it was knowing exactly when someone would die.

“Yes, you can. You didn’t become Death by chance. You- the universe chose you.”

“It made a mistake. I- the other entities don’t get it, they’ve never been human. So, they tell me to follow my instincts or something like that. I don’t- I know what I have to do but the emotional cost-“

“The fact that you care so much is why you got picked. Fate, and the others, they don’t need to have emotions to fulfill their purpose. They just are. You- Death should know how living feels. It’s the only way dying can be fair. At least, that’s what Evangeline said.”

“Who’s that?” Felicity asked.

“Yeah, not surprised you haven’t met come to think of it. She’s the one who reaped my soul. She also reaped Tommy’s.” Laurel said. “You’re doing a good job, don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“How do you-?”

“The dead know things the living don’t. You do too, you’ve just been….preoccupied, because of Barry.” she said awkwardly. Everyone in the world of the dead knew about Flashpoint and how none of the Powers That Be were happy.

“If you had told me a year ago, Barry would do something so selfish, so short-sighted and so damaging to everyone that I’d be fine with him dying, I never would’ve believed it.”

“I don’t like his methods, but I understand his reasoning.” Laurel said. “I kinda did the same thing-“

“No, bringing Sara back isn’t the same. You didn’t change 15 years of history. You didn’t wait around to fix it until it benefitted you. You didn’t erase- it’s not the same.” Felicity said. she cleared her throat. “I should let you go, you’ve got an afterlife to get back to.”

“That’s the upside, besides seeing Tommy again. I’ve got all the time in the world.” She said with a small smile. “You should talk to someone though. About how you’re dealing. Someone like Ollie.”

“I can’t just tell him I’m Death.”

“Maybe not. But being Death isn’t your main, or only problem.”

 

Later that day, in the new lair. Felicity watched Oliver do the salmon ladder. Unfortunately, he was wearing a shirt which didn’t seem fair to her. She watched and thought a lot about what Laurel said. 

“Are you okay?” Oliver asked as he dropped to the ground.

Over the last few months, the pair had done a lot of talking, but none of that talking was about anything important. They discussed his adjustment to being mayor, and Felicity’s new job. She’d told him she was doing some freelance work at the moment and didn’t explain further. He didn’t ask because Felicity ended to get technical and she didn’t elaborate because he could always tell when she was lying. They talked about the new hobby Thea had started doing and John’s deployment. They hadn’t said anything about Darhk, Havenrock, Laurel or anything else that had happened recently.

“Not really. I- I know calling off our engagement means I don’t have the right to ask this, but-“

“Yes. Whatever it is, I’ll do it.” Oliver said.

“You’re kinda- I can’t really talk to anyone else about Havenrock. Well, I guess I could talk to my dad, but that opens a whole other can of worms. And Lyla, as much as I love her, isn’t the best person to talk to about it. I know she tries but-“

“But you don’t wanna hear ‘it could’ve been worse’. I get it.”

“I- Darhk’s tampering with Rubicon is what launched the missile. Logically, I know that but I can’t always hide behind logic. He’s the reason the nuke was sent, but I’m the one who redirected it. And all anyone told me after was that I didn’t have a choice or that I did the best I could or that it was a minimal loss situation. Which is not what I needed to hear. Well, I kinda did. What I wanted- what I needed was for someone to tell me how I’m supposed to move forward. 75,619 people died because I redirected that nuke. I murdered them. No one’s told me how I’m supposed to live with that.” As she spoke, Felicity became more and more upset. Months of guilt and anger and shame came rushing to the surface.

“We- I don’t think you’re to blame, but that doesn’t seem to make you feel any better. In any case, you didn’t murder them, you tried to save them. You tried to save everyone and you couldn’t. You live with it by telling yourself that. Everyday. You wake up, you tell yourself that you did everything you could, that you were put in a lose-lose situation and that it wasn’t only your doing. You tell yourself that until it stops feeling like a lie.” He said. “In the meantime, you find an outlet. You keep moving forward. The shark that doesn’t swim drowns.”

“And what about what happened after? With Cooper-”

“I don’t wanna sound mean, but he made his choice. It was the right one in the end. He turned on Darhk and helped us.”

“Yeah, except I’m the one who talked him into letting Darhk kill him. I loved him, once, and I looked him in the eye and convinced him that he should die. If Thea had dragged him away from the keyboard or Malcolm had killed him, that’d be one thing. But that’s not what happened.”

“He helped stop the end of the world. You helped him do that.” Oliver said. “Because you inspire people to want to be better, to do the right thing. Despite all the things he’d done, all the bad blood between the two of you, you were still able to reach him.”

“It still feels like my fault.”

“It’s not. It’s HIVE’s. They kept him alive because they needed him. If he hadn’t stopped, he would’ve died anyway from either the blood loss or a nuke. He got to die on his own terms which probably felt better.” He said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” She said. “How are you holding up with everything?”

“This isn’t about me, its about you.”

“It’s about you too. You have feelings, you have regrets and it seems to me like its been a long time since you got to talk about that type of thing.” She said. “So, please, talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laurel will be making sporadic appearances in this. I'm not going to bash her because (my dislike of how Lauliver was written/handled aside) I like her character. I also think her friendship with Felicity gets overlooked a lot
> 
> Tumblr: laxit21


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver finally gets to talk about his guilt, decision is made and a visitor arrives.

“You have feelings, you have regrets and it seems to me like its been a long time since you got to talk about that type of thing.” Felicity said. “So, please, talk.”

“If you think death follows you, then its stalking me. I have so many deaths I’m responsible for, so much blood on my hands. My parents, Thea, Sara, Laurel, Tommy, Shado, Yao Fei, Akio, everyone around me dies. And its usually my fault.”

_Death doesn’t stalk him. She’s in love with him, and he’s in love with Death._

It didn’t escape her notice that Oliver only mentioned the friends he’d lost and not those who he had to kill to save others. “Your fault how?”

“If I had killed Ivo or even made Ivo kill me, Shado would be alive. Sara might not have joined the League and wouldn’t have died. Slade wouldn’t have come to Starling and killed my mother. I should’ve stopped the Undertaking, all the clues my mom was involved were there but I was in denial. If I had let Nyssa take her revenge on Malcolm and didn’t rush to Nanda Parbat to save him, I wouldn’t have fought Ra’s, Thea wouldn’t have been nearly killed. I shouldn’t have let Laurel become the Black Canary. Who knows, if I hadn’t been on the Gambit, my dad might’ve made it.” He said. He’d told her during their time away from Star City that his father had made it to the life raft but sacrificed himself to give Oliver a better chance. “And that’s not counting everyone who died because I didn’t stop Malcolm or Slade or Ra’s or Darhk sooner.”

_That is a load of horse shit. Tommy’s biggest regret was that he died before he could tell Oliver he was forgiven. Moira saw her death as her last chance to earn forgiveness for what she’d done, specifically the sinking of the Gambit. Letting Malcolm die would’ve haunted him for the rest of his life. And in the universe where Oliver wasn’t on the Gambit or didn’t make it to the raft, things turned out pretty much the same._

“Not counting the Undertaking, you didn’t stop them because you were trying to find another way. When you saw there wasn’t another way, you did what you had to do. And the ‘its all my fault’ angle ignores some of the choices those people made. And the other people involved.”

“How?”

“Tommy knew that he might die, but ran into CNRI anyway because he wanted to make sure Laurel was safe. Yes, we didn’t stop the Undertaking, but he chose to run in, knowing he might not come out. From what you told me, a similar thing happened with your mom, Slade was gonna kill you or Thea and your mom demanded he kill her instead. And you didn’t ‘let’ Laurel become the Black Canary. She wanted to honor her sister and if you hadn’t let her onto the team or helped her train, she still would’ve done it anyway.”

“So, you don’t think its my fault at all?” He was skeptical.

“No, I’m saying it isn’t all your fault. Your actions contributed to what happened, but they weren’t the only factor. You blame yourself for everything that goes wrong, and sometimes the blame is shared.”

“Let’s agree to disagree with that one.” he said. “I don’t think the city needs the Green Arrow tonight.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. We should do this again though.”

“What do you-?”

“We both repress a lot of things and hold stuff in. It can’t be healthy.” She said. “It’s an option, if you ever need to talk. That’s all I’m saying.”

 

Felicity got back to her apartment to find Time, Fate and Order there waiting. "What is it? Don't tell me someone else upset the natural order already?"

"No, that has not happened since Bartholomew Allen." Fate answered. "We are here to discuss the punishment he shall recieve."

"I thought I promised not to get involved. Wasn't that Time's big sticking point?"

"You swore not to insist we sweep in under the rug, and you kept your word. You do get input on how he is punished." 

"What do you have in mind?" She asked. They talked for hours about what to do before finally coming to an agreement.

 

Oliver was at City Hall the next day when his secretary told him he had an unexpected visitor. He told her to let the visitor in and was surprised when John Constantine stepped through the door.

“Sorry to drop by unannounced, but I didn’t think a phone call would cut it.”

“I asked for your help against Darhk months ago. He’s been dead for over four months.”

“And I’m glad, but that’s not why I’m here. You and I need to talk, mate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> What's Barry's punishment? Why is Constantine there?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Constantine gives Oliver some surprising news, Felicity meets someone new, and she gets a question answered.

“I asked for your help against Darhk months ago. He’s been dead for over four months.” Oliver told Constantine.

“And I’m glad, but that’s not why I’m here. You and I need to talk, mate.”

“What is it we need to talk about?” Oliver asked apprehensively. Given what John was an expert in, and why Oliver had needed his help months ago, anytime he said they needed to talk, it didn’t bode well.

“As you know, I wasn’t able to help with Darhk because I was indisposed.”

“You mean you were in Hell.”

“Semantics, but yes. While I was down below, I became aware of something concerning.”

“Can you just spit it out?”

“Death, Oliver.” he said. “Death has come to Star City.”

“No, that’s not- the city’s finally calmed down from Genesis and HIVE. We’re rebuilding. Murders are down, and there haven’t been any recent deaths that are suspicious.” Oliver argued. “There’s no way-.”

“When I say ‘Death has come to Star City’, I don’t mean someone like Darhk or Ra’s al Ghul. I wouldn’t expect any suspicious activity.”

“Then what does that mean?”

“I didn’t mean death as in the end of life or death in a metaphorical sense. I meant the entity. Death is a being, older than you can comprehend but a being nonetheless, its taken a physical form recently and that actual, physical being has come to Star City.”

“Are you saying that the Grim Reaper exists?”

“There isn’t just one grim reaper. Reapers work for Death but they aren’t Death. There’s only one Death, and its here.”

“So Death, the entity, is here. Why tell me? I don’t think I can defeat or trick Death.”

“No, you can’t. Plenty of myths, novels and movies are based on the fact that you can’t cheat Death. I don’t know why I told you, but I figured keeping you ignorant wouldn’t help at all.”

“How do you know anyway?”

“I was in a realm of the afterlife. The dead know things and sensed Death took a physical form.” He answered. “No one down below knew why or what it meant.”

“Does Death appearing mean the end of the world?” Oliver asked. “I mean, Death’s one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, right?”

“None of the other signs of the endtimes have appeared. And a lot of the Bible is wrong, especially Revelations.” He replied. “And Earth’s not that significant on the universal scale Death oversees.”

“Earth isn’t significant? Seven billion people live here.”

“And Death will one day destroy the entire universe. It’s nearly as old as the universe itself. I’m not saying Earth isn’t important, I’m saying Death itself wouldn’t show up to destroy it.” He said. “Death taking a physical form means something. Something must’ve happened. And visiting this city, I can feel that something’s different. Be careful.”

Unbeknownst to either man, they were being watched. Even though Oliver and John couldn’t do anything about Death being present, Jessica still knew she had to tell her boss. Constantine didn’t know this, but reapers had a tendency to feel drawn towards Oliver Queen. Until the day Havenrock was destroyed, they didn’t know why. The reaper currently watching them had encountered Oliver more than once in the past.

Jessica rolled her eyes before teleporting from city hall to Felicity’s loft. Felicity was typing away on her laptop and jumped when she heard a throat clear behind her.

The blonde turned and saw an unknown woman, in her late twenties, with dark hair and a scowl on her face. She was wearing a black leather jacket, jeans and combat boots. Something was off about her. Then, it hit her. This woman didn’t have a countdown clock above her head like everyone else. Her soul also felt different.

“How did you get in here?” she looked at the door which was still deadbolted. “Without going through the door.”

“Reapers don’t need doors. I’m pretty sure you know that already.”

“You’re a reaper?” Even though she’d been Death for some time, Felicity hadn’t met any reapers yet. They worked for her, though, so she felt like the world’s worst boss at the moment.

“Yeah, we haven’t met before though. I had souls to reap, you had to keep the universe spinning. Name’s Jessica.”

“Felicity aka Death, but you already knew that.” she said awkwardly. “I don’t think you stopped by to meet your new boss.”

“I didn’t. Oliver Queen knows you’re here.”

“What do you-?”

“John Constantine told him Death had come to Star City. He doesn’t know you’re Death but he knows Death is here. Since you’re my boss, that seemed like something you should know. You probably were gonna sense it soon enough anyway. This saved time.”

“How do you know that he told him?”

“We feel drawn to him, to Oliver. Not to reap him, but we’re drawn in. I delivered the message I needed to, and should get back to work.”

“Thanks. For the head’s up.” Something told Felicity she’d see Jessica again soon. She disappeared as suddenly as she appeared.

_Despite her demeanor, she’s one of the best._

“She is?”

_She’s better at comforting the dead than you would think. Her tendency to be distant and cold is exclusive only to other reapers, some of whom turn it into a form of competition, ‘who’s the best person you’ve reaped’, ‘what’s the saddest death you’ve seen’ and so on. Most of those reapers are no longer, but a few remain and the disrespect is difficult to forget. And she hasn’t tried to break the main rule, even once._

“Main rule?”

_They don’t get to decide who lives and who dies. Everything dies when it’s meant to. Every reaper has encountered a soul or two they don’t want to reap for one reason or another. They fail to reap the soul, and the person makes a miraculous recovery._

“What happens then?”

_It causes a ripple effect. For example, a reaper refused to take the soul of a young girl who was very sick. He didn’t believe it was ‘fair’ for a little girl to die, so he didn’t collect her soul and she miraculously recovered. As a result, her doctor and nurse went home earlier than they were meant to. The nurse was driving home when a drunk driver jumped the light. The doctor needed to save her had gone home already and couldn’t make it back in time. She died. Her death led to her husband tracking down the drunk driver and killing him. Messing with the natural order always has unknown consequences that you cannot control._

“So-“

_Just like Barry Allen, but on a smaller scale._

 “Yeah, well, he’s not gonna do that again, is he?” she said.

_You are allowed to feel conflicted about what happened but you did the right thing, made the right decision. His extreme actions warranted an extreme response._

Felicity didn’t respond and headed to the Arrowcave. When she got there, Oliver was beating up a training dummy.

“Rough day?”

“I had an unexpected visitor at City Hall. It was Constantine.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“Said he came to warn me, warn us, about something.” He answered. "It sounds very bad."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> \-------------------------------------------  
> 1) Yes, the 'what if' example partially came from an episode of Supernatural. I thought that episode did a really good job of explaining the ripple effect that happens if people don't die when they're meant to.
> 
> 2)Jessica is based on a character from a different work/universe. Any guesses?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity talk about Constantine's news, Felicity finds out how difficult secret keeping can be, and something happens at City Hall.

“I had an unexpected visitor at City Hall. It was Constantine.” Oliver told Felicity.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Said he came to warn me, warn us, about something.”

“That’s not ominous or anything. Warn us about what?”

“He said Death had come to Star City, literally.”

Felicity let out a low whistle, because he was expecting some kind of a reaction. “I mean, most people would say Death’s been here for a while.”

“This is different. This is the Grim Reaper, here in a physical form.”

“What does he think it means?”

“He didn’t say, and we weren’t able to figure out why.”

“Maybe its not a big deal. Maybe every 10,000 years or so Death has to take a physical form so they can appreciate and understand the value of life or something.” _Maybe Death doesn’t want to be Death, but isn’t given a choice and didn’t feel like moving just because the universe decided to give her a job._

“Death coming here isn’t a big deal? Slade, Ra’s, Darhk, I could go on. This city doesn’t have a great track record with new and powerful people coming here.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t a big deal, I said it might not be a big deal. Like you said, you don’t know why they’re here and this is Death we’re talking about. Something tells me if Death wants something to happen, it will.”

_I just want to live my life!  Should I even still call it life? Anyway, I can say, with 100% certainty, that Death isn’t up to anything in Star City except arguing with you about your eternal pessimism. I didn’t ask to be Death, I don’t want to be Death. Stop making me sound like the bad guy. I’m not hurting anyone._

_That is not entirely true. In keeping the universe in order, souls must be reaped. Their families experience emotional pain that comes with the loss of a loved one._

_Not helping and you know that wasn’t what I meant._

“So, even though we know it’s here, we don’t do anything.”

“Not yet. We don’t know enough about the situation and nothing’s happened that raises any red flags.” She said. “How does Constantine know this anyway?”

“He said that, when he was in Hell, Death took a physical form. Since Hell’s part of the afterlife, everyone there felt it since the dead would pay attention to that kind of thing. I don’t know how he figured out Death’s in Star City.”

“Probably some convoluted magical explanation.” She said.

“Yeah, he said he was gonna get in touch with some people, see what he can find out.” Oliver said. “Let’s focus on what we do know. Tobias Church is up to something and needs to be dealt with.”

The next day, Oliver was unveiling the statue honoring Laurel when several men with automatic weapons showed up and attacked the ceremony. Knowing fighting too hard would blow his cover, Oliver surrendered and he and several city council members were taken hostage.

They kidnapped Oliver to make the Green Arrow show up which was rather ironic and he would’ve found it funny if other people weren’t in danger. He manipulated the man who kidnapped them, Tobias Church, into moving him away from the other hostages.  This way he could break free, save the others and not blow his cover. Getting himself free wasn’t a problem, but Church had set up a kill cordon around the city council members. This made Oliver do something he really hated, ask for help. The SCPD came through and got everyone to safety.

A few days later, after Oliver announced the formation of the Anti-Crime Unit, he was walking through City Hall when gunshots rang out. One of his bodyguards pushed him to the ground but it was too late. A bullet had found its mark in Oliver’s chest. Next thing he knew, the same guard was pressing something against his chest.

“Stay with me.” the man asked. “The mayor’s been shot. Call an ambulance.”

All the noise seemed to blur together. He could hear the sounds of a fight, sirens, people screaming. Thea was crying a few feet away from him. In addition to the sounds, everything he saw happened in a fog. The EMTs and rushed him to Starling General. They wheeled him into an operating room. He recognized some of the staff from Felicity’s time in the hospital and the night Laurel died. Then, the anesthesia took effect and he slipped into unconsciousness.

Oliver didn’t know where he was. He was standing in a hallway he didn't recognize. He didn't know how he got there. The last thing he remembered was being wheeled into an operating room.

“We meet again.” a voice said from behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Oliver's in surgery, his mind wanders somewhere else and he meets a new face. Elsewhere, Felicity tries to stop the inevitable.

Oliver didn’t know where he was. He was standing in what looked like a hallway. The last thing he remembered was being wheeled into an operating room.

“We meet again.” a voice said from behind him. He turned to see a dark-haired woman with a leather jacket standing a few feet away from him. He didn’t recognize her at all.

“I’m sorry, I don’t- where am I?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Being wheeled into an operating room for emergency surgery after getting shot.” He said. “Where am I? Who are you? Why do you think we’ve met before?”

“My name is Jessica and we have met before, you just don’t remember it.” she answered. “When you were poisoned. When Ra’s al Ghul stabbed you in the chest. I saw you often on that island. You don’t remember because you lived.”

“Wha-?”

“Come on, your friend Constantine told you my boss was in town. I’ll tell you a little secret, they don’t ride a pale horse, but they do have a scythe.”

“You’re Death?”

“No, but I work for Death. I’m what you’d call a reaper.” 

* * *

 

**Star City**

Felicity didn’t need Thea to call her to know what happened. She knew Oliver was shot the second it happened and was on the way to the hospital as the call came in. She only answered because she knew it wouldn’t make sense for her to get to the hospital before Thea or even Oliver unless she knew it was going to happen.

She moved past several reapers on her way to Thea. It wasn’t surprising to see her employees here. Plenty of people died in hospitals, she was just hoping Oliver wasn’t going to be one of them. She found Thea in the waiting room hysterical.

“I don’t- we didn’t- is Ollie gonna be okay?”

“I really hope so.” Felicity said. “I can’t just sit here, I need to- I’m gonna go get some coffee. You want anything?”

“No, I’m- I’m good.”

Felicity walked down the hallway so that she was out of Thea’s sight. Once she was alone, she concentrated on making herself intangible and then teleported herself to where Oliver’ surgery was taking place. She watched the surgeon repair the damage caused by the bullet. The surgery was almost done when Oliver’s heart rate monitor began going crazy. She noticed Jessica standing on the other side of Oliver.

“You can’t be here.” She said. “You can’t take him. its not his time.”

“You’re right, its not. I’m not here to reap him but we do need to talk. There are things he needs to know. You can come with me, to ensure I don’t try anything.”

* * *

 

**Oliver’s Mind**

“I’m what you’d call a reaper.” Jessica said.

“Am I- I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“Yes, at this moment, you are. Your heart has stopped beating and the doctors are trying to get it restarted.”

“They won’t though, will they?”

“No, they will. It’s not your time and on top of that, she won’t let me reap you.”

“She?”

Jessica pointed over Oliver’s shoulder. There was a figure, female judging by the curves, standing with her back to Oliver. She was wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled up. She wasn’t very tall and didn’t seem intimidating. “My boss. Death’s a woman. Anyway, she likes you and wouldn’t let me reap you even if I wanted.”

“Where are we?”

“I was wondering when we’d get back to that. First of all, this is in your mind. Some people call this limbo, others call it purgatory. She calls it the In-Between because, at the moment, your soul is between the world of the living and the afterlife. The name’s grown on me.”

“I need to- I have to go back. I’ve been here too long.”

“Time moves differently here.” the hooded figure said. The voice sounded like a combination of several voices, some of which he knew.

“Why am I here?”

“To talk, and to remember. She knows death scares a lot of people, and you don’t want to admit it, but it scares you too. She isn’t the bad guy Oliver, and neither am I. There’s an order to the universe and we’re doing our jobs. You need to know that now.”

“Why?”

“You’ll understand in time.” Jessica smirked. “The universe has a plan for you. Now, just like every other time, you’re being sent back. This time, however, you’ll remember. She wants you to remember and it’ll make things easier when the time comes. I’ll see you again, Oliver.”

* * *

 

**Star City**

Felicity let out a sigh of relief as Oliver’s heart started once again. she knew he wasn’t going to die but that didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking.

“You knew he wasn’t going to die. I don’t understand why you were so worried.”

“His clock stopped. What else was I supposed to think?” The clock over Oliver’s head had stopped counting down when she entered the OR. She knew that it could only mean one thing.

“It stopped, but it didn’t hit zero. It’s frozen. Those are two different things.”

A clock that hit zero meant it was the person’s time to die. She didn’t know what a frozen clock meant.

“Knowing he wouldn’t die and seeing it for myself are two different things.”

“If you say so. I’ve got souls to reap.” Jessica vanished.

Felicity teleported out of the OR and returned to the physical plane. She found Thea pacing the hallway. They sat in silence until a SCPD officer approached them. “We need to take your statement, Ms. Queen.”

“Go, I’ll get you if there’s news.” Felicity assured her.

While Thea explained what happened, Felicity thought back to her conversation with Jessica. Oliver’s countdown clock was frozen, but she wasn’t sure what that meant.

_It is a loophole. The universe made an exception for Oliver Queen. Given your feelings for him, it seemed cruel that he would die and move into the afterlife, leaving you here alone. Hence, the frozen clock. Not only is he not going to die, he cannot, so long as you are Death._

“Because I’m Death and in love with Oliver, he can’t die or be reunited with his loved ones again?” She whispered.

_Do not be so dramatic. He cannot die as long as you are Death. When you are no longer Death, both of you will die and move on together. it is not as bad as it sounds. I looked into his soul months ago and he refuses to leave you behind, that has not changed._

“Does that mean I should tell him?”

_No, it is not time yet and he would not understand._

“Ms. Queen? Ms. Smoak?” A doctor came down the hallway as Thea finished making her statement. “Mayor Queen is out of surgery. They’re moving him to a private room now. He’s still under anesthesia but you can go see him.”

“Thank you.” Felicity said as she and Thea followed the doctor. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver's out of surgery, what happens next?

Felicity stopped in the doorway when she and Thea got to Oliver’s room. Despite having witnessed his surgery, despite knowing he’d be okay, it was hard to be in the same room as him in this condition. He was sleeping peacefully, unsurprising given how heavy anesthesia was, and was hooked up to far too many wires in her opinion.

“He looks so-“ She wasn’t sure what the word was. Small? Peaceful? Un-Oliver-like?

“Yeah.” Thea said, guessing what she was going to say. “They, uh, they caught the guy. Officer Anastes just told me. They still don’t- don’t know why-“

“Don’t worry about that right now. Are you okay? Physically, I mean.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t- I was on the other side of the room talking to someone when-“ Felicity moved closer to her and rubbed a hand up and down her back. “We got into an argument this morning and I keep thinking- Do you think he can hear me?”

“I think he can.” She answered. “Do you want me to give you some privacy?”

“No, stay. Please. I don’t think I can be alone right now.” Thea said. “Ollie, I’m sorry about what I said and I- I need you to be okay.”

“He will be. He survived the island. He survived the Undertaking and Slade and Ra’s and Darhk. He’ll survive this.” Felicity said. “If I believe in nothing else, I believe that.”

After about an hour of waiting in Oliver’s hospital room, Quentin walked in. “I know it’s not a great time, but the city council and the press are both asking for updates about Oliver.”

“His surgery was successful. That’s all we can say for now.” Thea told him. “Normally, the deputy mayor would step in to fill his shoes while he recovers but-“

“Star City doesn’t have one.”

“Actually, we do. City council didn’t want to incite a panic and approved my appointment half an hour ago.” Lance said. “I’ll go tell them. Keep me updated.”

“Of course.”

When the anesthesia wore off, Oliver jerked awake and tried to sit up. His heartrate monitor started to go crazy as he began to panic at waking up in an unfamiliar room. He grunted in pain as trying to sit up put too much pressure on his incisions.

“Hey, hey. You’re okay, but don’t try to sit up.” Thea told him.

“I’ll go get the doctor.”

“Is everyone else okay?” Oliver asked quietly. “The shooting-“

“One of your bodyguards got clipped and Maria got hit in the arm. They caught the shooter. I don’t know if they know why-“

“That’s tomorrow’s problem.” He said. He was still trying to process everything, being shot and the conversation he had in limbo. Just then, Dr. Schwartz walked into the room. She had a worried look on her face. “How bad is it?”

“The bullet missed one of your major blood vessels by millimeters. We removed it and got to work repairing the damage. We were almost finished when you went into cardiac arrest. We were able to revive you after about two minutes. You’ll need to stay here for a few more days for observation and your….other activities need to be put on hold for six to eight weeks.”

Thea began to sob when she heard Oliver’s heart had stopped. Felicity stared ahead of her to appear shocked while Oliver nodded along with the doctor. He knew his heart had stopped and while it was upsetting, it wasn’t surprising. After informing Oliver of what had happened, Dr. Schwartz left the room.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again.” Thea said as she launched herself at Oliver for a hug.

“I’m sorry Speedy.” He said hugging back as best as he could. “Can I talk to Felicity for a second?”

“Yeah, i- why am I really hungry all of a sudden?”

“We’ve been here for hours and you haven’t eaten anything the whole time.” Felicity said. “Understandable but now its catching up to you.”

When Thea was out of the room, Oliver struggled to figure out how to say what he needed to tell her. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“No place else I’d be.” She told him. “but I don’t think that’s why you wanted to talk to me.”

“When I was…under, when my heart stopped, I saw something.”

“You did? What did you see?”

“I met a reaper. She said her name was Jessica.”

“You met the Grim Reaper?”

“Not the grim reaper, a reaper. From what I understand, they all work for Death. Oh, and I kinda met Death too. Well, I saw the back of her head.”

“Her head?”

“Death’s a woman.”

“Ok, yay girl power, I guess? What did they tell you?”

“That Death isn’t the bad guy, they’re just doing their jobs, the universe needs to stay in balance, et cetera. Jessica also said they were sending me back, with my memories, because ‘the universe has a plan’ for me.”

“Geez, no pressure or anything. That’s good though, isn’t it? that Death isn’t the bad guy. And isn’t after anything.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. I should be skeptical, considering the source, but I don’t know, I could just tell they weren’t lying.” He answered. “There’s something else I need to tell you, about what happened there. When Death spoke to me, I heard…it sounds crazy, but I thought I heard your voice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver talks more about his time in Limbo, and Felicity reflects on a decision she made.

“It sounds crazy, but I thought I heard your voice.”

“My voice?” Felicity said.

“Yeah, Death she said something. Jessica did most of the talking, but Death did say one thing. Something about how time moved differently in limbo. When she spoke, I heard this chorus of voices, but yours was the only one I could make out clearly.”

That made complete sense. She was Death, so why wouldn’t Death’s voice sound exactly like her? Still, it posed a problem if Oliver looked too deeply into it. Maybe he’d see it as some sort of coping mechanism his mind had created to deal with what was happening or a sign. Maybe he thought Death did things like that.

“it sounds crazy, right?” he asked, cutting off her train of thought.

“Not so crazy. I- the supernatural isn’t my area and there’s a lot of leaps of faith and unknowns involved with the afterlife. Who knows what Death can do?”

"Maybe that's what she does. Death, I mean. If someone was dead, and terrified, hearing the voice of someone they love would calm them down. Keep them at ease."

"Maybe. I'm just glad they sent you back."

Thea came back into the room and the trio talked for a while. Not about anything serious, but the women didn’t want to leave and Oliver didn’t want them to leave, so they just talked. As they discussed trivial things like the show Thea had started watching, Felicity’s mind drifted back to her conversation with Fate, Time and Order about Barry.

* * *

 

**Several Weeks Ago**

“I’m vetoing that idea.” Felicity said as soon as Time was finished talking.

“Why?”

“Because Barry’s punishment shouldn’t be someone else’s death. I don’t care how poetic it seems to you, his punishment for saving a person he loves is killing another person he loves. I’m not fridging anyone.”

“I don’t understand what that phrase means.”

“The meaning doesn’t matter. Here’s what I’m saying: I’m not going to kill someone to teach Barry a lesson. Lives are more important than that, more valuable than that.”

“What would you suggest then?”

“Between the four of us, we control the entire universe, right?”

“All of existence, yes.”

“Well, one I vote that we don’t fix that little alien problem on its way. Or any other issue caused by Flashpoint that impact him. The ones you’ve fixed in the past. Two, we take time travel away from Barry. The Speed Force is part of existence, we can do that. Or better yet, next time he runs to the past, he can’t get home. Three, we, or rather I, can make the sweet hereafter not so sweet for him.”

“What do you mean?”

“No matter how fast he runs, no matter how many jams he gets himself out of, he can’t escape Death. When he dies, he’ll be reaped.  He’ll move into the hereafter. Doesn’t mean he’ll get to be reunited with his family. Maybe because of his actions and the fallout, they spend eternity apart.”

“That may be a little extreme.” Fate said. “And out of character for you to suggest.”

“Yeah, I might be overdoing it. I’m really pissed about Sara Diggle and the thousands of other lives he changed. The deaths he caused.”

“If I may make a suggestion, we can punish him without anyone dying or having such a narrow sphere of influence.” Order said. “Rifts happen, people break up, the only things set in stone are what we decide and Fate agrees to. We can even use his penchant for meddling against him.”

“How?”

“Perhaps he travels to the future and sees something he isn’t meant to. He’ll return and do everything in his power to prevent it, causing those events to unfold. We exacerbate some of the existing personal problems he’s caused.”

“I feel like most of this boils down to ‘we stop saving his ass’.”

“That’s a succinct way to put it.”

“This isn’t concrete or finite enough for my liking.” Time argued. “We’re using too many ‘maybes’ and ‘perhaps’. Someone needs to die, or at the very least be seriously injured due to something that is entirely Barry Allen’s fault and something he can’t change.”

“Fine. Who are we going to condemn?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> There's gonna be a little time-jump in between this chapter and the next.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six weeks after the shooting, Oliver returns to his Green Arrow duties and a run-in with a disgruntled citizen leads to an unexpected revelation.

**Star City**

Exactly six weeks after his surgery, Oliver was cleared by Dr. Schwartz to go back into the field. In the meantime, Thea had started patrolling in his stead. He’d tried to go out before being cleared, but Felicity threatened to handcuff him to a chair every time he suggested it. He could have just escaped from the cuffs, but it was the message that mattered. A week earlier, John had come back from his deployment overseas. His unit had been attacked during a routine mission, he’d lost some men and sustained some damage to both his arms. The Army discharged him due to his injuries. He hadn’t come back to Team Arrow yet, but everyone was still happy to have him home.

Oliver’s first night back in the field was a disaster. He was a little rusty. His body wasn’t in top shape anymore and of course it was a night where all criminals in Star City decided to be out and about. He ended his patrol feeling tired and overextered. He was walking home when he came across a robbery in progress. He was exhausted but knew he had to help. He interrupted the crime, giving the victims time to escape.

He knocked out one of the two thieves and was dealing with the second when he felt something hit him from behind. Turning, he saw someone in a mask holding a bow.

“Green Arrow, and here I thought you’d died. Glad you didn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanna kill you myself.” He said as he shot Oliver in the chest.

Sirens began to blare so the mystery man took off. Oliver was left in the alley with an arrow still sticking out of his chest. Luckily, he was close to the foundry. It surprised him that an arrow in his chest didn’t seem to hurt. He waved it off as adrenaline.

“What the frack?” Felicity exclaimed as soon as she saw him. “You realize you have an arrow embedded in your chest, right?”

“No, I hadn’t noticed.” He deadpanned.

She rolled her eyes and moved closer to him with the medical kit. “Ok, I’m gonna pull it out. On three.” She paused and placed one hand on his shoulder while the other gripped the arrow. “One.” she pulled.

“What happened to two and three?!”

“You would’ve expected me to remove it on either two or three.” She answered as she put a bandage over the wound. “Now get changed, I need to take you to Starling General.”

“The arrow’s removed, I don’t need a hospital.”

“You were shot in the chest, you’re recovering from major surgery and I’m not a cardiologist. You’re going.” She said. “Please, for me? I need you to be okay.”

“Fine.” He grumbled as he changed into sweats and waited for Felicity to finish shutting everything down.

They went to the ER and didn’t have to wait long before Dr. Schwartz was able to see them.

“Have you been experiencing any of the symptoms I warned you about?” She asked. She needed to know if this visit was because of his surgery or because of something else.

“No. No fever, no swelling, no nausea, no bloody urine or stool, nothing.”

“Then what brings you here?”

“He was shot in the chest with an arrow.” Felicity said. “We removed it, and I bandaged it as best I could, but I’m not a doctor. And given what happened six weeks ago, I thought we should play it safe.”

“You were right. Please remove your shirt, Mr. Mayor.” Oliver took his shirt off and removed the bandage over the wound. The doctor looked at it for a few moments before taking a step back. She ordered an MRI, a stress test and an xray of his chest. Felicity waited while the tests were run and soon enough, Dr. Schwartz came back into the room.

“You’re completely fine. It’s miraculous.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no internal damage to your body. I’d expect either blood vessel damage or some vascular complication. Your stress test came back clear, so did the MRI and nothing on the x-ray concerns me. That’s based solely on where you were shot, not anything else. Nothing like what I expected to find.”

“What would you expect to find?”

“To put it bluntly, given what happened six weeks ago, the strain your cardiovascular system has been under and the fact you’re still being weaned off blood thinners, this injury should’ve killed you or brought you very close to death.” She answered. “The fact you’re standing in front of me, talking, is almost supernatural.”

_You can’t tell him yet. Its not time for him to know that you’re Death._

_I know that. Doesn’t mean I like it._

Oliver was sent home with orders to take it easy and come back if any symptoms appeared. “I need to call Constantine.”

“Why?”

“You heard what she said, the fact I’m not dead is almost supernatural. Getting shot didn’t even hurt. Something’s up. Maybe this is connected to my trip to Limbo, maybe it isn’t, but John’s the only person I can really ask without going to Limbo again.”

Constantine happened to be in Hub City when Oliver called and said he could make a short trip to Starling. Felicity knew Constantine couldn't sense she was Death, so she didn’t make up an excuse to avoid him. John stepped into the lair, took one look at him and asked, “what the bloody hell have you been up to then?”

* * *

 

**Central City**

Barry Allen was panting when he appeared in the cortex of Star Labs. He was pretty sure he was having a panic attack. He couldn’t breathe.

“Barry, you okay?” Iris asked.

“No, I- I saw the future. It was- we have to change it.” He had to change it.

Across the universe, the primordial beings felt a sense of satisfaction. Everything was going according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> \-----------------------------  
> What do you think Barry saw?  
> Who do you think the Powers That Be chose to punish Barry?
> 
> As a reminder, anyone Barry knows, except Oliver for obvious reasons, is up for grabs.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Constantine has an idea about how to get answers, Oliver learns an important fact and a secret is revealed unintentionally.

“What the bloody hell have you been up to then?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve got, let’s just call them, remnants of some form of magical or mystical energy rolling off of you. And it’s powerful.”

“Well, I did die and then was sent back to the world of the living.”

“During your surgery?” He asked. Oliver nodded. “No, that’s not it. That was weeks ago, any residual magic would’ve worn off by now. Tell me everything that happened between the last time we spoke and now.”

“I got shot, went into surgery. During the surgery, my heart stopped. I went into limbo and talked to a reaper and Death. They sent me back.”

“You talked to Death. As in, the actual being?”

“Yes. Why? Does that not normally happen?”

“That never happens. Death has never, ever spoken to someone in Limbo in all of known history.”  He argued. “Continue.”

“I was benched for six weeks while I recovered from emergency trauma surgery. Last night was my first night back in the field and I was shot with an arrow. It didn’t hurt and it didn’t do any damage.”

“No damage?”

“According to my doctor, no. no muscular damage, no cardiovascular complication, nothing. she said it was almost supernatural.’

“And that’s why you called me.”

“Yes. I want to know if this has anything to do with what you told me.”

“Let’s find out, shall we?” John said before handing Felicity a list. “If we’re gonna figure out what this is about, this world might not be the place to do it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Oliver and I are gonna perform a little spell. Send ourselves to another plane. See If we can get answers from someone else.”

Felicity got everything on Constantine’s list and returned to the lair. She excused herself before they started the spell, claiming she didn’t want to intrude on something that was so personal. Oliver tried to argue, but she pointed out that they were talking about Oliver’s death. Nothing was more personal to anyone than their death. As soon as Felicity got into the elevator, Constantine began chanting.

Felicity waited for the elevator to close before she vanished into thin air.

 

When Oliver opened his eyes, he could feel he wasn’t on earth anymore. He looked around and Limbo, or wherever he was, looked decidedly different. Instead of an empty hallway, he and John found themselves sitting in what looked like the dining car of a train. It was empty.

“When I said I would see you soon Oliver, I didn’t mean this soon.” Jessica’s voice said from behind him. Both men jumped and turned around. “I’m assuming this isn’t a social visit.”

“What’s happening to me?”

“In terms of what?”

“I got shot with an arrow. It should’ve killed me, but it didn’t. it didn’t do anything.”

“And you think I know why.”

“Well, you work for Death don’t you?”

“It’s not that simple, but yes.”

“So, anything related to death and dying is up your alley.”

“It is.”

“Tell me what I want to know.”

“Or what? What will you do? I plan on telling you but I’d like to know what you’d threaten me with. Your usual threats, those of death or torture, don’t frighten me. that’s the upside to being what I am.”

Oliver was silent. He didn’t have anything to threaten her with and he knew it. Even as he demanded answers, he knew he had no way of forcing her to reveal anything.

“You aren’t what I expected a reaper to look like.” John spoke up.

“What were you expecting? This?” Jessica transformed from a black-haired woman in her late 20s to an old man wearing a black suit. “Or perhaps this?’ She went from the old man to a skeletal figure wearing a black cloak before shifting back. “None of us have ever looked like this unless we need to scare someone. My boss hates this look, thinks its cliché and counterproductive.”

“How?”

“The dead are already frightened enough. Our task is to escort them to the hereafter. If we frighten them more, it is more difficult to find peace.”

“Why didn’t I die?”

“Because you can’t. Death, well, she likes you. She refuses to let you die, and she’s the boss, so-”

“Why would Death want me to live? Isn’t it her job to make sure things die?”

“She’s made an exception. I can’t explain it all to you, but she’s- you’re important to her. As long as she’s Death, she won’t let me of us reap you, and thus you can’t die.”

“What do you mean ‘as long as she’s Death’?”

“As long as Death stays in her current form. As Mr. Constantine here no doubt explained to you, Death’s taken a physical form as a woman on Earth. It happened only a few months ago.”

“So, Death won’t let me die because she likes me?” Oliver asked. He wasn’t sure how he should or even could explain this to others.

“’Yes. And before you ask, this isn’t some punishment for the island or because of the lives you’ve taken. She likes you in spite of those things.”

The train car began to shake around them. “What is that?”

“That is Death being really pissed about Oliver being on this plane. You pulled a being she loves out of the living world. You’re lucky she waited this long to get angry about it.”

“Wait, love? Death loves me?”

“She has since before she was Death. It’ll make sense soon enough.” Jessica said right before Oliver and John were forced back into the world of the living.

“So, you can’t die.”

“And Death loves me. That’s not weird or concerning or anything.”

 

In the afterlife, Jessica watch Oliver and John vanish before turning around. “The whole ‘shaking the car’ thing was a nice touch.”

“I thought so too.” Felicity said. “I should get back. He’s gonna wanna tell me what he found out in limbo.”

“Why did you make it a train car this time?” Jessica wondered.

“I just felt like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> Now Oliver knows he can't die, but when will be put all the pieces together?


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver talks about what Jessica told him, and someone makes a little mistake.

“Uh-oh. You have mopey face.” Felicity said as she came back into the lair. Despite her desire to go see Oliver as soon as he was sent back to the land of the living, she waited for him to call her. “I take it the talk in Limbo didn’t go well.”

“I can’t die.”

“What?”

“I can’t die. Death won’t let any of the reapers take me. She even kicked us out of limbo.”

“Did whoever you talked to say why?”

“Well, the reaper I spoke to, it was the same one as last time, Jessica, she said Death likes me and that’s why I can’t die.”

“Death likes you?” she repeated skeptically.

“Well, ‘love’ was the word she eventually used.”

“Death loves you. I don’t think anyone expected that one. But that’s good right? I mean, you don’t want to die. No one really wants to die.”

“I don’t wanna die, but if I can’t die, I have to watch everyone else I care about die. Seems worse than dying to me.”

“Oliver, mate. You just found out you couldn’t die.” Constantine interrupted. “Take a night off from brooding and shooting arrows at people. Get drunk. And process this. Trust me, I’m an expert.”

“That’s probably a good idea. Thanks for your help.” He conceded. “I’ll see you tomorrow Felicity.”

“Call me, if you need to talk. This is- I mean, complicated doesn’t cover it but- don’t sit down here and wallow.” Felicity said as she was leaving.

Oliver was left alone in the lair. Something about what Jessica said wouldn’t get off his mind. Death loved him ‘before she was Death’. That implied that, barring Death being a stalker like Cupid, he knew Death. Death loved him, and he knew her. There were only a handful of women that he knew loved him or did at one time. None of which made any sense.

* * *

 

**Central City**

Iris and Joe watched concerned as Barry sped around Star Labs. Caitlin hadn’t shown up to work that day, and Cisco was lounging in a chair as Barry had what looked like a mental breakdown in front of them.

“Aren’t you going to do anything?”

“Barry knows best, right?” Cisco answered bitterly. “Whatever he’s doing is for the greater good, the protection of the timeline, blah blah blah.”

Things had been tense lately. First, Cisco was pissed at Barry for not changing the timeline and saving Dante. Then, he told the truth about Flashpoint and Cisco’s anger and bitterness towards Barry went up a notch. The fact that everyone insisted he forgive Barry didn’t help things.

“Not helping.”

“Other than a little feng shui, he hasn’t done anything concerning or dangerous. I say let him keep going.”

Iris rolled her eyes and moved over to where Barry was working, muttering to himself. He was talking too fast for her to understand what he was saying.

“Barry? This is me getting concerned about what you’re doing. What are you doing?”

He stopped working and turned to face her. “It’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna fix it.”

“Fix what?”

“The future.” He said. The terrible, awful future he’d seen. “I’m gonna fix it. I have to fix it. I changed the past, why can’t I change the future?” He descended into his speed-mutterings as Iris watched getting more and more worried.

“Barry, stop. Listen to me. You wanna change what happens, fine. But you can’t do it alone and you can’t do it if you’re running yourself into the ground.”

“If you saw what I saw, you wouldn’t be saying that.” He said.

Death and destruction. That’s what awaited him in the future.

* * *

 

**Star City**

“I don’t understand.”

“You died, David.” Felicity said simply. “You were leaving the store when some idiot who wasn’t paying attention sped through the red light and hit you.”

“Is- did it hurt?”

“No. You didn’t feel anything.”

“What happens now?”

“Now, its time for you to head into the great beyond.”

“I don’t- I’m not ready.”

“Can I let you in on a little secret? No one ever is. And that’s okay. It’s okay to be scared. Or confused or angry. That’s why I’m here. To help you.”

“My family. What will happen to them?”

“You’ll see them again.” She told him.

Whenever asked, she didn’t go into detail about what happened to someone’s family after they died. They mourned, and missed their family member and their lives weren’t the same after that, but the dead didn’t need to be told that, and deep down, they didn’t want to know.

She held a hand out and waited for David to take it. He went to the afterlife and Felicity wound up back in her loft. She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine. She was almost finished with the glass when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to find Oliver standing there.

“I hope your offer to talk was still open?”

“Of course.” She said, taking a step back so he could come inside. They sat down on the couch. “You okay? Never mind, that’s a dumb question. Of course you aren’t.”

“I’m okay as I can be.” He admitted. “I died six weeks ago, went into Limbo, got sent back to the land of the living. Then, I went back to Limbo tonight only to be told I couldn’t die. I’m exhausted.”

“I imagine. Getting to the In-Between and back must be tiring.” She remarked.

Oliver turned to face her. “What did you say?”

“I said going to and from Limbo is probably tiring.”

“You didn’t say Limbo, you said the In-Between.”

The puzzles pieces started to come together in his mind. He’d never told Felicity that Death called it the In-Between; he always referred to it as Limbo. Felicity never seemed as surprised as she should’ve been when he told her about the afterlife.  He heard her voice in Limbo, when Death spoke. Death loved him since before she’d become Death.

“You’re Death.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver have a long, overdue conversation

“You’re Death.” Oliver said.

“What? No, I- frack.” Felicity responded. Her first instinct was to deny it, but then she realized she didn’t want to. Finally, someone else knew the truth. It was surprisingly freeing. “Figures I’d manage to keep it quiet for months and then get found out because of a tiny slip-up.”

“You’re Death.” He repeated.

“Yes, I am. Wow, that felt good to say.”

“How-? How can you-? How long ago did this-? Why didn’t you tell-?” There were too many questions Oliver wanted to ask and he didn’t know which one to ask first.

“I couldn’t tell you.” She said. That was the easiest question he had that she could answer. “There are only three rules to being Death and one of them is that I can’t tell anyone among the living who I am. I had to- you had to work it out for yourself. And I’m pretty sure as part of the weird loophole where you can’t die, you can’t tell anyone who I am either.”

“I can’t- you can’t be Death. You- you’re Felicity. You don’t kill people, that’s not who you are.”

“Remember what Jessica told you? How I’m not the bad guy, this is part of what she meant. Death, and reapers, they don’t kill people. That’s not their job, not my job. All living things die, everything eventually ends. To everything there is a season: a time to plant, a time to reap. Death exists so that that happens. I don’t kill people, I help guide their souls to the afterlife.” she said. “I don’t like it, but by this point, I understand it.”

“How long have you been Death?”

“Since May. I don’t know exactly when the universe picked me, but right around Genesis Day.” She admitted.

“Genesis Day?” He said.

“I became Death after I sent that missile to Havenrock. I was put in a lose-lose situation with the nuke, Monument Point or Havenrock, and picked the one with less casualties. I wanted to save everyone, but I couldn’t and I ended up sacrificing thousands to save millions. In doing so, and my whole attitude about the situation, I showed the universe that I had the right personality for the job.”

“What does that even mean?”

“When Fate, yes Fate is an actual being, explained what was happening to me, he phrased it like this: Death needs to be compassionate and value life. And it should be someone who doesn’t like killing but understands that death is a part of life and can’t be avoided forever.” She said. “I’m not the monster under the bed, I’m the comforting voice telling scared people that everything’s going to be okay and that they don’t need to fight anymore.”

“This is why you were so distant that week, wasn’t it? When I came into the lair and you were staring at the wall, asking me what I thought about Death.”

“Yeah, that was- I reaped my first soul earlier that day and I felt so- even though its my purpose or whatever, reaping souls is emotionally draining.” She said. “Do you have any idea what its like, to have someone beg you to give them a little more time, or argue that it wasn’t fair that they died, and have to tell them that you can’t send them back? That it’s their time and nothing can change that. I needed someone, anyone, to tell me that I wasn’t a monster for not giving her more time. Between that and seeing Laurel-“

“You saw Laurel?”

“Yeah, I- I didn’t know I was Death at the time, Fate hadn’t told me. I thought I was just going crazy. The day after we stopped Darhk, in the cemetery after you left, I said goodbye to her grave. When I started to walk away, I heard her voice ask me for a favor. I turned around and there she was. She couldn’t believe I could see and hear her. Turns out I can see and talk to dead people.”

“What- what did she say?”

“She asked me to keep an eye on Quentin. And she told me to tell you it wasn’t your fault.” Felicity said. “Then, some complicated universe-stuff happened and I didn’t see her for a while, until being Death made me wish I hadn’t been born.”

“What complicated universe-stuff?”

“I’ll tell you, just- not today.” Soon, she’d tell Oliver about Flashpoint and the timeline that no longer was. Soon, she’d tell him about Sara Diggle and all the things, big and small, that was changed. Soon, but not today. Their conversation was upsetting enough as it is. “I can only take one conversation like this in a day.”

It was quiet for several moments. “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. You’re in this position because of me, because I allowed the situation with Darhk and HIVE to go on for far too long. Havenrock happened because of me, and you’re paying for it.”

“Not everything’s your fault, Oliver.” she said. “The decision to make me Death was made by beings a lot bigger and more powerful than you. And if what one of those beings said was completely true, something like this was always going to happen.” It looked like Oliver was going to say it wasn’t her fault and she continued. “Don’t absolve me of what I did. I sent the missile there, I made a choice. I regret that choice, and I always will, but I made it. I think my owning up to it is the only thing that’s fair to the victims.”

“It’s not fair for you to carry the weight of that on your own.” It wasn’t that Oliver didn’t care about the people that died in Havenrock, he did. He hated seeing Felicity, a woman he loved, continue to fall apart and suffer for what happened. Their deaths weren’t fair, but neither was Felicity beating herself up over it. “They shouldn’t have had to die, but life isn’t fair.”

“Death is though. It’s the only universal experience.” She said. “Even though it’ll be a while before either of us dies.”

“You’re gonna die?”

“Eventually, yes. When I’m done being Death. I don’t when that’s gonna happen or what I need to do, but one day I’ll stop being Death, I’ll die and Death goes back to being an incorporeal force.”

“What about me?”

“When I die, you’ll die. And I’m sorry about that.”

“Why?”

“I could be done tomorrow. Or I could be done in 10,000 years. I’m probably gonna watch everyone I care about die. And you’re gonna do it with me, because I didn’t want to go through that alone and the other Powers That Be decided you were the person they should make an exception for.”

“I- I need to go.” Oliver said standing up. This was too much information. He couldn’t process any of it right now. She wasn’t sure if the reality of the situation had set in or if he hadn’t thought through the implications of being unable to die until now. “I- it’s a lot to process.”

“I know.” She wasn’t upset or angry, but resigned. She expected this outcome. “Call me when you’re ready, if you’re ready.”

He left the loft and tried to figure out what to do next. There wasn’t exactly a guide or self-help book for this situation. As he headed back to the lair, he started making a list of all the questions he needed to ask Felicity about her ‘new job’. Did she know when people were going to die? Could she bring people back? What happens after death? The list grew as Oliver’s emotions began to oscillate between sadness, anger, apathy and a tiny bit of hope.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver knows the truth, he's had some time to think, and now he has questions.

Felicity didn’t hear from Oliver for three days after she told him the truth. She wasn’t happy about that, but she understood. What he’d learned was an awful lot to process. It was just after 5pm on the third day when he called her.

“Come to the lair, please. I need to talk to you.”

Worried, but not wanting to be too pessimistic, Felicity changed and headed to Oliver’s old campaign office. When she arrived, Oliver was the only person there and she stood there waiting for him to say something. She couldn’t tell what mood he was in or what he wanted to talk about, so she decided to let him tell her.

“I- I’m not sure where to start.” He said.

“Just say whatever comes to mind.” She said. “Actually, first, just tell me that you don’t completely hate me.”

“Hate you? I don’t hate you, I don’t think I could ever hate you. is that- is that why you didn’t try to talk to me for the last few days?”

“Kinda. I wanted to give you time to process. I know it’s a lot to take in. I didn’t want to rush you into accepting things or seeing things my way.” She said. “I was also afraid what you’d tell me if I did reach out. This isn’t about me, it’s about you and what you want to say.”

“I have a lot of questions.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Do you know when someone’s going to die?”

“In what sense? Do I look at someone, say Quentin, and know exactly when, where and how I’m going to die? Or, do I know at any given moment know who’s dying?”

“Um, both.”

“So, I can answer the second one first, because its easier. I can kinda feel that someone on Earth is dying when they die. The closer I am, the more I feel it. That’s kinda- when you were shot, I knew you were shot before Thea ever told me, because I felt you get closer to dying.”

“And the first one?”

“I don’t know the how or where, but I know when.” She admitted. “Everyone, they have this clock over their head that’s always counting down. Well, everyone except you because your clock is frozen. Anyway, when the clock hits zero, the person dies. Sometimes, the person will do something that changes how much time they have.”

“Like what?”

“I was walking past a guy on the phone. He said he wasn’t gonna take a cab and instead just walk home. His time changed from several years in the future to ten minutes. He was hit by a drunk driver on the way home.”

“Oh, how long does-?”

“I’m not going to answer that. You don’t want to know how long someone has, it’s depressing. No matter how long it is, it’s still information you’ll wish you didn’t know. I know you want to ask about how long Thea has, but I can’t burden you with that.”

“You’re right, I don’t want to know. Can you bring people back to life?”

“Is it possible? Yes. Will I do it? No.” she said simply. “It sounds cliché, and no one wants to hear it, but nobody dies before their time. They die when they’re meant to die. Bringing someone back, not reaping people when they’re supposed to be reaped, it causes a ripple effect, and nothing good comes from it.”

“In what sense?”

“It’s like knocking over a domino. Cause and effect, but everything someone does, every action that happens has more than one consequence. You’d think an average person not dying when they’re supposed to wouldn’t change anything, but the opposite’s true.”

“But you’re Death.”

“And I don’t decide who lives and who dies. Or, rather, I don’t decide alone. Fate plays a role, there’s an order to the universe. People die when they’re meant to die.” She said. “No matter how much other people would disagree.” Her tone turned bitter during the last sentence.

“Why do I get the feeling something big happened and no one else knows?”

“Because something did, and I’ll tell you, but not today.” She said. “Were those your only questions?”

“What happens? After someone dies?”

“Their soul goes to the afterlife. Some people call it Heaven, some don’t. It’s not exactly ‘everything you ever wanted’, it’s more ‘your life with all the bad days edited out’. They get to reunite with the people they’ve lost, relive their happiest times, stiff like that.”

“What about the ones who don’t get a happy ending?” Oliver asked. He was certain that his soul wasn’t fated for a happy ending. He’d lied, hurt, tortured and killed. He wasn’t going to the sweet hereafter, he was going to Hell. “The ones who don’t deserve it?”

“Of the seven billion, four hundred sixty-six million, nine hundred sixty-four thousand, two hundred eighty-three people currently alive on Earth, maybe a few hundred thousand will get sent to Hell. It’s such a small percent that its negligible. And they have to do some unspeakably bad things for that to happen. I’m talking genocidal maniacs and war criminals and serial killers and child molesters. Or people who make literal deals with the Devil. Those are the people who get sent to Hell. Despite what you think, you’re not going to Hell, Oliver.”

“I deserve it. I’m a murderer.”

“No, you don’t. You’ve done some bad things, but that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. The bad choices you’ve made, you made them for good reasons. You were trying to save this city, sometimes trying to save the world. Do you like killing people Oliver? Do you kill because you want to?”

“No, I only kill if-.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you did. I was pointing out that you’ve killed because you felt you had to. That’s an important thing to consider.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> There'll be less talking and more actual action coming soon


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity struggles with her new position in a different way and Oliver learns about Flashpoint

A few days after Oliver and Felicity’s conversation about her new position, he was working on paperwork at the office when he got a text from her. It was a short message, just asking him if he could come to the loft. The contents of the message didn’t worry him, but the length did. Felicity tended to text like she talked; she was the kind of person who texted whole paragraphs, not just a few sentences. He told his assistant he was leaving early, claiming to have a doctor’s appointment, and rushed over to where Felicity was.

He knocked on the door and heard a muffled ‘come in’ from the other side. Opening the door, he found Felicity on the couch, crying. By the looks of things, she’d been crying for a while.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He asked, taking a seat next to her. She didn’t say anything and started to cry harder. “Did something happen? Something related to your ‘new job’ as you like to call it?” She nodded. “Okay, I’ll go make you some coffee.” She shook her head. “You don’t want coffee?”

This was bad. Felicity never didn’t want coffee. He sat next to Felicity and held her as she cried. Eventually, her crying stopped and she went into the bathroom and washed her face.

“Sorry about that.” she said coming out of the bathroom. “It’s just- you’re the only living person I can talk to about this and sometimes its really-“

“You’re human, you have emotions. Its okay.” He assured her. “What happened?”

“I had to reap someone.” she said quietly.

“You’ve done that before. I know you get upset when you have to do that, but I’ve never seen you this upset before. This person, he or she was different, weren’t they?”

Felicity nodded. “Her name was Cassie. Someone pushed her down the stairs and she died from a skull fracture.” She started to tear up again. “She was four. I just had to reap a little girl. I had to tell a preschooler that she was dead and that her own father killed her. I had to explain death to a toddler.”

“I’m sorry.” Oliver said. “Its not enough, but its all I can think to say.”

“Do you know what the worst part was?”

“No.”

“When someone dies, we answer any questions that the dead may have, so they won’t be scared.” She explained. “Cassie wanted to know if she could bring Mr. Bear with her. He’s her teddy bear. I’m a monster.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“I just killed four-year-old.”

“No, you didn’t. You’ve told me multiple times, Death doesn’t kill people. You didn’t kill her, her father did. You, Felicity, took her somewhere that she won’t be in pain anymore. Where he can’t hurt her again.”

“Then why do I feel so horrible?”

“Because you care, because you have empathy. Because you know that things like this shouldn’t happen.”

A week after that, he worked up the courage to ask her about the big thing that happened that she wouldn’t tell him. Secrets had ruined their relationship the first time around and didn’t want the same thing to happen to them now.

“So, this big terrible thing that happened, the one you clearly don’t want to tell me about, what was it?” Oliver asked.

“Before I tell you, you need to promise me two things: one, you will listen to my whole story. Two, you can’t say anything about it, to anyone. Not even the person involved.” Felicity said. Oliver couldn’t confront Barry about this, or worse tell John. He just nodded. “Back in May, Barry went back in time. To March 18, 2000. He stopped Eobard Thawne from killing his mother.”

“He went back and saved his mother?”

“Yes, and in the process, created a whole new timeline. He never became the Flash, his parents were alive, things in our lives were different, but it would take me too long to explain fully. When the changes started to become permanent, he realized he liked the original timeline better. He went back again and stopped his other self from creating the new timeline, to ‘set things right’.”

“I take it from your tone, that didn’t happen.”

“Time, the being, doesn’t like it when people do what Barry did.  The timeline never resets exactly. There’ve been changes, some small, some huge changes, from the original timeline. I don’t think he’s even aware of the full extent of them. Not that he would be.”

He was surprised to hear Felicity sound so bitter and angry towards Barry. “What do you-?”

“Changing the timeline is like knocking over a domino on a universal scale. People who had nothing to do with Barry, who hadn’t even heard of Central City, died because of the dominos he knocked over. And I had to reap them.”

“How?”

“When it doesn’t reset exactly, some events happen slightly different. Like the butterfly effect. A commuter train in Dallas was delayed before Flashpoint. Post-Flashpoint it was on time and the train crashed, killing everyone on board.” She said. “Now, think of all the natural disasters and tragedies that happened between 2000 and now. The death tolls were different the first time around, and when he changed things the first time, I had to reap hundreds of people. When he changed things back, I had to reap hundreds more. It was heartbreaking.”

“And that’s why you’re angry.”

“No, that’s why I didn’t stop the other entities from trying to punish Barry. I’m angry at Barry because of Sara.”

“Sara Lance?”

“No, Sara Diggle.” He shot her a look of confusion. “You know how I said things happened differently? In the original timeline, Lyla and Digg got pregnant a month earlier. They had a baby girl, born the night Sara died. John named the baby after her.”

“So, when he changed things, she died.”

“No, when he changed things, she was never concieved. He erased Baby Sara from existence, which is worse. Because Barry and I are the only people who know she ever existed.”

“Does he kno-?”

“He knows. He remembers everything about the way things were before.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity talk about Barry's actions some more, along with how this situation is unique.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to clear the air about a few things.

“So, Barry changed the timeline. His actions got people killed. They erased people from existence. He knows this is all on him. Why hasn’t he said anything?”

“He’s told his team, but that’s it. He’s not gonna tell anyone else unless he has to.” Felicity explained. “And he will have to.”

“I still don’t get why he didn’t already tell us.”

“Because he doesn’t like hearing that he screwed up or that his actions were selfish. Or that he was wrong. Some people on his team are understandably upset that he changed their lives, but because its Barry, because the Flash is supposed to be a hero, he can’t have made a mistake. No one can say that what he did was horrible and wrong. He doesn’t want people to find out the truth and be mad at him.”

“He doesn’t want them to be mad?”

“It’s a simplification, but yes. To plenty of people, he’d the villain in all of this, and that doesn’t make him feel good. He doesn’t want to face the fact that thousands of people died because of his actions. So, if no one ever finds out-”

“No one can call him out on it.” he finished. “Wait, you said he was going to be punished.”

“He will be. Some of its gonna happen real soon, some of it won’t for a while.”

“Meaning?”

“Some of the consequences he faces are immediate. Some aren’t. The Powers That Be are patient, we can wait.”

“What does that mean?” Oliver asked again.

“Barry can run all he wants, but he can’t outrun death. And when he dies, he’s gonna have some things to answer for. To the people he owes those answers to.”

“You’re sending him to Hell.”

“What? No. He’s not going to Hell.” Felicity said. He wasn’t going to the sweet hereafter either, but that was beside the point. “But he does need to face the consequences.”

“Can I ask something? I’m not saying what he did was right or good, but I can understand the reason why he did it. I don’t understand your different positions on bringing people back though. Why was what Barry did so bad, but what Laurel did not?”

“Because its not the same circumstances. Laurel didn’t change the timeline, Barry did. She also- its s numbers game. Bringing Sara back to life led to the deaths of seven people. The three women who looked like Thea, a HIVE agent and three others when she couldn’t control her bloodlust. Barry’s actions led to the death of thousands. It’s unfair to compare the two.” She answered. “And Laurel’s already faced the consequences of her actions.”

“What do you mean?”

“Laurel using the Pit to bring Sara back set off a chain of events that directly and indirectly led to her death. Nyssa destroying the Pit. The League’s civil war. Malcolm joining Darhk. She didn’t die as punishment for resurrecting Sara, but doing that set things in motion. And since I wasn’t Death at the time, there was nothing I could do about it.”

Oliver didn’t want to think through all of the ramifications of what she’d just said, so he pressed on. “So, what is Barry’s punishment?”

“I can’t tell you that yet but you’ll see it soon. Next week actually.” The Dominators would arrive next week, brought to Earth because Barry interfered with the timeline. They’d try to wipe out all metahumans, afraid of Barry or someone like him changing the past again, and fail. Still, the event would leave a lasting mark on this world.

“Next week?”

“The universe decided its time for him to clean up his own mess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?
> 
> I know this was short, but I thought there should be a transition chapter between 'Oliver learns about Flashpoint' and 'Alien invasion' where some things are addressed.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aliens are invading, and it's time to talk about Flashpoint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't very nice to Barry.

Oliver and Digg were out in the field. There’s been an uptick in drug crimes happening lately and Green Arrow and Spartan needed to get to the bottom of it. Oliver was in the middle of questioning the dealer they’d cornered when a red streak came tearing towards them. Seconds later, Oliver and John, along with a very startled Thea were in Felicity’s loft.

Barry began explaining that he really, really needed their help, but was talking so fast that no one could understand him. The problem with superspeed was that it wasn’t limited to just Barry’s arms and legs. He kept talking, not registering that no one seemed to be following along.

“Barry. BARRY!” Felicity finally yelled. “We didn’t catch any of that. You’re speed talking.”

“Oh. Right. I need your help.”

“With what?” Oliver asked.

“Aliens.”

“Aliens?”

He gave a short explanation before asking Oliver of he knew how to get in touch with Sara. they agreed to meet up at a Star Labs annex while Barry traveled to another Earth to get Kara.

 

After Supergirl had been introduced to Team Arrow, Team Flash and the Legends, Oliver suggested they do a test run against Supergirl. Everyone was getting ready when they heard the door to the building open and one set of footsteps approaching. Everyone rushed over to where the noise was coming from, only to see a woman with dark hair and a scowl on her face, wearing a black leather jacket standing there.

“I told you I’d see you soon Oliver.” Jessica smirked. Reapers normally couldn't appear to the living, but this conversation was a once-in-a-trillion-year exception. And she'd been looking forward to this conversation for months.

Sara meanwhile couldn't believe her eyes. “You- how are you here?”

“You know her?” Oliver asked Sara.

“You know her?” Sara was shocked Oliver knew her.

“Ok, you both know her, but who is she and how do you know her?” John asked.

“You all see her too.” Sara said. “She's kinda-”

“I'm what you might call a reaper. When people die, I help them move on. Two years ago, I reaped Sara here. Escorted her to the afterlife. Until someone brought her back to life.” Jessica explained. “And when Oliver was shot months ago, he died for a little bit and we had a chat.”

“Is that why you're here? To reap them?”

“No, it’s not her time. And Sara was always going to be resurrected, so Death’s not upset about her ‘escaping’ or whatever. And I can't reap Oliver. I’m here about him.” She pointed to Barry. “And what he did.”

“What do you-?”

“C’mon, you know what this is about. Flashpoint, everything you changed. Any of that ringing a bell.”

“What is Flashpoint?” Ray asked.

“A few months ago, I went back and changed the timeline and now some of your lives are different from when I left.”

Several people were about to ask what that meant when Jessica cut in. “Oh, more than just their lives.”

“What do you-?”

“Are you really that arrogant that you believe your actions exist in a vacuum? I think ‘the butterfly effect’ would be the right term for it. People who don't know, have never heard of the Flash, their lives are different now. Some of them, they're dead, because of you. Thousands of them.”

“Surely that's an exaggeration.”

“32,167. That's the toll as of right now. Not as high as Felicity, but that was all at once and she had a little help.” She told them. “She was trying to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. But you, you killed them because you're selfish. Your dad died, and you didn't think that was fair so you went back and saved your mother. You changed time again when you realized, without mommy's death, you don't have Iris. Who cares how many people die as long as you're happy?”

“It's not that-”

“No, it is that simple. People die when they’re supposed to die. Your parents are no exception. Just because you were struck by lightning doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply to you. You can't handle the responsibility of time travel, and now all of this is happening.”

“What-?”

“When you mess with time, Time messes back. Every other time, the cosmic powers take care of all the big problems that arise. Not this time though. This invasion, it's happening because of you. Because you changed time and now, the Powers That Be don't wanna clean up your mess. They could've swept it under the rug, but didn't see the point. Especially after you pissed my boss off.”

“Your boss?”

Yeah, Death. I'm a reaper, I work for Death. Black cloak, scythe, rides a pale horse. You know, for a while she was in your side, willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But then, you did something the others didn't think was possible.”

“I made It angry.”

“Did you not hear me when I said 'she'? Death's a woman. And, no, you didn't make her angry, you broke her heart. See Death deals with people dying all the time, it's literally her job. She has a great deal of compassion for both the dead and those left behind. But you, you went home after changing things and decided other people's suffering didn't matter. That if no one knew how their lives had been changed, it didn't matter. It does matter, Mr. Allen. The people who are dead matter. The people you erased matter. Sara Diggle matters.”

“Who?” John asked.

“In the original timeline, you had a daughter instead of a son. She was born the same night that Sara died and you named your daughter after her. When Barry changed the timeline, she was never conceived.”

“I had a daughter?”

“Yes, and the only people who remember her are beings like me and the man who erased her.” Jessica said. Jessica’s demeanor changed when she addressed Diggle. She was angry and bitingly sarcastic when talking to Barry, but sounded sympathetic towards John. He was the only person in group she truly felt sorry for.

“So, you're here to kill me.”

“No, I'm here to tell you that this is happening because of you. I’m here because someone needed to tell them. It certainly couldn't have been you, because if you were going to tell the truth, you would've already. Which meant you would've lied to make yourself look better.” She gestured to the others. “Death would’ve come, but frankly, you aren’t worth her time Barry. And I personally wanted to tell you that what you saw, you can't stop.”

“What do-?”

“The Powers That Be that I mentioned? They write the rules. If they say it's gonna rain hamburgers, it's gonna rain hamburgers. You can't stop it, you can't change it. You can't fight City Hall.”

With her message delivered, Jessica turned and left the building. The Legends began to lecture Barry about not changing the timeline. John stormed away, trying to process. Oliver pulled Felicity aside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the truth about Flashpoint now out, Oliver has questions and the alien invasion progresses.

Oliver pulled Felicity aside as soon as Jessica left. Something she’d said had caught Oliver’s attention and he wanted to know more. Felicity had expected he would have questions and didn’t try to fight him on this.

“What did she mean?”

“She said a lot of things. You need to be more specific.”

“She said there was something in the future, something Barry couldn’t stop. What is it?”

“His actions have consequences. I told you they would. She was referring to some of those consequences.” She answered evasively.

“I thought this, the invasion was his consequence.”

“No, well it is but its not the only one. You know that whole ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ thing? It’s not entirely true. Think about all of the events that were caused by the Queen’s Gambit sinking. How many things were changed. Every cause has more than one effect.”

“Ok, but what was she talking about?”

“This invasion, it doesn’t really effect Barry on a personal level. He feels the need to do something, yes, and people are now very angry with him, but that wasn’t quite enough to satisfy Time. he argued for something a little more personal, and I was outvoted.”

“And the ‘something more personal’?”

“I can’t tell you yet.”

“Why not?”

She was saved from having to answer by an alert going off on her phone. “We need to go.” She said as she ran back into the building. The President needed their help.

With the group divided, Barry decided to stay behind while the others went to help the President. Oliver stayed behind as well in solidarity. He also wanted a chance to continue his conversation with Felicity, although she made sure to keep herself busy while the others were gone.

The ones who stayed behind relocated to Star Labs. The others returned from trying to help the President, and as soon as she saw them, Felicity knew something was wrong. When Thea starting shooting arrows and Supergirl looked at Barry like she wanted to kill him, it made things rather obvious.

“Speedy?” Oliver asked his sister warily.

“I don’t think that’s all Thea.” Felicity said.

“What do you-?”

“I don’t know. They’re aliens. Mind control isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility.” She said.

Cisco and Felicity used the Star Labs satellite to scan the city for any weird signals or energy readings, while Barry and Oliver fought off their mind-controlled friends. Wally ran out to help but was hurt by Supergirl after only a few minutes. Felicity found a weird signal coming from a device set up in an abandoned factory, while Barry was able to trick Kara into destroying. With the machine destroyed, everyone stopped being mind-controlled and they gathered back at Star Labs. They were heading inside when suddenly, Sara vanished into thin air. Thea, John, Ray and Oliver followed, with Oliver being the last person abducted. Moments later, Oliver was returned, to everyone’s confusion except Felicity’s.

“Why send me back?”

“I think you know why.” Felicity said, giving him a meaningful look. The Dominators wanted information on metahumans. Oliver knew things the living weren’t supposed to know. Putting him into the simulation Thea, John, Sara and Ray were in would’ve destroyed the machine.

“How do we get them back?” Jax asked.

Felicity excused herself, saying she needed to brainstorm with someone in Star City. In actuality, she wanted to see if she could reach them in the simulation. She wasn’t, but something about seeing Laurel alive again snapped Sara out of it, and she helped the others escape.

Cisco, meanwhile, had travelled back to 1951 when the aliens first visited Earth. He wanted to learn why they’d come here in the first place. He saved one of them from being experimented on by the government and changed the timeline.

Sara, Ray, Digg and Thea returned to Earth, only to find out the Dominators had gathered all the information they needed to build their superweapon. They were about to deploy the bomb when Felicity projected herself onto their mothership.

“I’m giving you a choice. Leave this planet or face the consequences.”

“What consequences do you have to threaten us with? You are just a human.”

Felicity reached over and touched the closest Dominator to her. He fell to the ground, dead. “You sure about that? You can’t kill me, but I can certainly kill you. And I will.”

“To save the metahumans.”

“I’m not doing it for them. I’m doing it to save the millions of non-metahumans who’ll die if that bombs goes off.” she said.  “You can either leave the Earth, with all its metahumans, alone or I can kill your entire species.”

“You aren’t capable of such a thing.”

“Tell that to the Dodo bird. By all means, you want to go extinct, be my guest.”

On Earth, everyone watched in shock as the Dominators returned to their ships and the ships vanished into thin air.

“What the hell just happened?”

“I think, we won.” Barry said. Felicity walked back into the room and pretended to be surprised by this turn of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the aliens gone, Felicity has some questions she can't avoid answering. Oliver asks something she didn't expect.

On Earth, everyone watched in shock as the Dominators returned to their ships and the ships vanished into thin air.

“What the hell just happened?”

“I think, we won.” Barry said. Felicity walked back into the room and pretended to be surprised by this turn of events.

“What happened?” She asked.

“’They left.”

“What?”

“The Dominators. They all just….left.” Cisco said.

Oliver kept his eyes on Felicity, searching for any kind of explanation. Her surprised look morphed into a pleased expression for a moment and he knew she had something to do with it.

With the invasion stopped in its tracks, there wasn’t a reason for the group to be assembled and they started getting ready to return home. Barry wanted to come to an understanding with Digg before Team Arrow left, but Kara stepped in. She suggested that John might need some time before he was ready to talk to Barry, especially about Flashpoint. Kara went back to Earth-38, the Legends returned to the Waverider and Team Arrow loaded up into a van and drove back to Star City.

When back at Felicity’s loft, Oliver started questioning Felicity as soon as the door was closed behind them. “What did you do?”

“Huh?”

“The Dominators, they left. Because of you, I’m guessing. What happened?”

“I told them to leave or they’d all die.” She admitted. “Their anti-metahuman bomb would’ve killed every metahuman on Earth, bad, along with millions of innocent non-metahumans. I couldn’t let so many people die.”

“What about the invasion being Barry’s consequence?”

“It was, how and when it ended wasn’t a result of his actions.”

“That’s why its not the only price he’s gonna pay, isn’t it? You didn’t want that many people to die and it needs to be ‘more personal’ like you said.”

“Based on your tone, you disagree.”

“I just think- I can understand why he did it.”

“So can I, so can anyone. It’s not that he could do it, it’s that he did it. He knew he wasn’t supposed to change the timeline, but he did. Plenty of people have gone back to see lost loved ones, no one else has interfered with a set chain of events.” She explained. “I also think- John doesn’t remember Sara. His pain is abstract, if you will, since he doesn’t know what life was like before Flashpoint. If I had to find a parallel, Sara being erased, to him, is akin to if Lyla had a miscarriage. There was a child, he knows there was a child, but he never held her, he doesn’t remember her being born, and so on. For me, its like she died at the age of two. I remember her, I remember her being born, I remember her first steps, learning to walk. I was Aunt Lisy, like you were Uncle Ollie. The Powers That Be, Jessica, me, we remember.”

“You do?”

“Yes, and I could show him or Lyla memories of the events that have been rewritten, but I won’t. Because of how cruel that would be.”

It was quiet for several moments before he spoke again. “Could you show me?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” She asked. “Because once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it. I can’t make you forget.”

“I want to know. I- you shouldn’t have to remember her alone.”

He’d suspected for a week or so that Flashpoint was a huge weight that was dragging Felicity down. Not only did she have a general idea, but she knew exactly what had changed and what hadn’t. How much worse certain things, and certain people’s lives, were. The knowledge was a burden weighing her down. Now, hearing that she remembered Sara’s life, something no one else could say, he didn’t want her to carry that alone.

“Ok.” She said. “Give me a minute.” She went to walk upstairs.

“What?”

“I wanna change into yoga pants. If we’re gonna do this, I might as well be comfy.” She shrugged. She came downstairs a few minutes later. She took a seat on the couch and gestured for Oliver to sit down. They sat cross-legged so they were facing each other. “Close your eyes.”

Oliver closed his eyes and felt Felicity grab both of his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity take a trip down memory lane.

Felicity took a seat on the couch and gestured for Oliver to sit down. They sat cross-legged so they were facing each other. “Close your eyes.” He closed his eyes and felt her grab both of his hands. “Ok, I need you to clear your mind. I’ve never done this before but that sounds like the right thing to say, right? A clear mind with nothing on it has to be better than having too many-”

“Felicity?”

“Right. Getting off track.” She took a deep breath. “Clear your mind. Try not to think too hard about anything in general. Take a deep breath in, and let it out. Again, and out.”

The back of Oliver’s eyelids gave away to the dim lights of the foundry. He wasn’t quite sure when this memory was, but suspected it took place either during the Slade fiasco or immediately following it. He heard someone calling his name and turned to see Felicity standing there.

“Everything ok, you kinda zoned out for a moment there.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He said. Since he didn’t see another version of himself, he guessed he’d be living the memories that were changed, rather than just observing.

She gave him a small smile before turning back to Digg. “So, now that Slade’s on the island and there’s no major threat to the city, fess up.”

“What?”

“The thing you wanted to tell us a few days ago. On Lian Yu, you said it could wait. You know how I feel about mysteries or not knowing things. What is it? What’s your news?”

“I’m- Lyla’s pregnant. I’m gonna be a father.”

Oliver froze for a moment. He didn’t remember this at all. Based on his memories, Digg told him about the baby a few weeks later, after he returned from doing Waller ‘a favor’ in Kasnia. He wasn’t there at all when Digg told Felicity about the baby.

Felicity let out a squeal of excitement and rushed over to hug her friend. “That’s amazing! Do you know what you’re having? Does she know when she’s due? Are you excited?”

“I- it hasn’t really sunk in yet to be honest.” He admitted.

Oliver walked over to John and stuck his hand out. They shook hands and he patted his friend on the back. “Congrats. I’m happy for you guys.”

 

The scene shifted to Big Belly Burger in the middle of the day. Oliver found himself sitting in a booth across from Felicity. She was tapping her fingers nervously against the table. “Oh, I hope everything’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Well, John was supposed to be here by now, and the reason I can think of about why he isn’t is because when he and Lyla went to the OB this morning, they learned something unexpected.”

“I’m sure-“ As Oliver started to reassure her, the bell over the door rang and Digg and Lyla came into the restaurant. Lyla looked happy, while John looked a little green. “How’d it go?”

“Is he okay?” Felicity said, pointing to Digg who didn’t seem to be all there.

“He’s fine, its just- we got a little surprise at the doctor.”

“Are you having more than one baby? Twins? Triplets?”

“No, just one. One baby girl.” Lyla said. “And he’s- I’m hoping this is a ‘how am I gonna keep her away from boys’ freak-out and not a ‘I wanted a son’ freak-out.”

That snapped John out of it. “Of course it’s the first one. I didn’t want a boy more than a girl or vice versa. But now, hearing we’re having a girl, I’m worried about the next him.” He gestured to Oliver.

“Me?”

“Would you want your daughter to be around a pre-Island you?” He asked.

“Ok, you do have a point.” Oliver conceded. “But I don’t think we’ll need to worry for a while. Between the two of us and Lyla, we’ll scare ‘em off.”

“I’m offended I wasn’t included in that.” Felicity said.

“Well, you aren’t exactly- you’re a lot of things, intimidating isn’t one of them.”

“Oh, I’m not, am I? Most people would find a woman who can erase their very existence, and effortlessly steal all of their money without leaving a trace threatening. Not to mention how easily I could frame someone for a crime they didn’t commit.”

“You’re our nuclear option, Felicity.” Lyla told her. “You can’t reveal your trump card too early on.”

 

The scene dissolved once again. He was in the foundry. Everyone else had left for the evening. They’d stopped Werner and stopped Rockets Arena from getting blown up, with some help from Sara. He had been working out for the last few hours. Now that he was living underneath Verdant, he found himself working out and training almost incessantly. He was getting out of the shower when his phone rang.

“John, what’s up?”

“Lyla’s- the baby’s coming.”

Oliver hung up and raced towards the hospital. He got there shortly after Felicity did and saw her walk into Lyla’s hospital room where she was holding her baby girl. He froze in the doorway.

“She’s scrumptious. Mazel tov you guys, seriously.” Felicity said as she reached out to touch the baby’s tiny little hand. Digg thanked her before noticing Oliver.

“I can come back.” The archer said.

“No, Oliver, come in.” John said walking over to him.

“She’s perfect. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Oliver.”

“For what?”

“For being right. The second I looked at her, everything changed. The whole universe…changed. You were right.”

After that, the things he saw were short moments but important ones. He saw the first time Sara rolled over on front of John. When she started crawling. There were so many tiny moments that had been erased that seemed so big in the moment.

“This is- its almost the last one.” He heard Felicity’s voice say somewhere in his mind.

He found himself sitting next to Felicity. They were in John’s apartment, and John and Lyla seemed to be going through a list of things to tell them.

“We should only be gone for a few hours.”

“Guys, relax. We’ve babysat Sara before.” Felicity assured them.

“We know but- you know, now she’s walking and talking and just a little more of a handful.”

“We’ll be fine.”

“Ok, let me go wake her up.” Lyla said, walking into Sara’s nursery. Moments later they heard giggles and heavy footsteps.

Sara came running out of her room and made a beeline towards Oliver. “Uncle Ollie! Aunt Lisy!”

“Hi, Sara!” They both greeted her excitedly.

“Hi!” She said.

“Ready for some fun?” Felicity asked.

“Yeah!” the toddler responded, clapping her hands excitedly.

“I think they’re gonna be just fine, Johnny.” Lyla said as they headed towards the door.

“Wait, say bye-bye to Mommy and Daddy.” Felicity said when she saw them start to leave. “They’ll be back soon, okay?”

“Bye-bye.” Sara waved before going back to telling Oliver all about Frozen.

He didn’t follow half of what she was saying, but nodded along diligently nonetheless. After she finished telling him all about Frozen, she insisted Oliver and Felicity both play a game with her. She seemed to be making it up as she went along, but they played along nonetheless. Before they knew it, Digg and Lyla were back and they said their goodbyes.

 

The scene changed one last time. Oliver found himself standing in the Diggles’ apartment once again. They were eating breakfast with Sara in a high chair. Felicity was standing next to him. When they didn’t react to him being there or even acknowledge his presence, he knew they couldn’t see him.

 

Felicity moved closer and closer to the toddler as she spoke. “I’m so sorry, Sara. I wish I could’ve seen you grow up. I’m gonna miss you a lot. I love you so much. Your mom and dad and Uncle Oliver and Aunt Thea, they all love you so much.” Tears started rolling down Felicity’s face.

In the blink of an eye, Sara was gone. A little boy was sitting in the high chair instead. The family seemed just as happy. Felicity was sobbing and Oliver found himself crying too.

He opened his eyes, and he was back in the loft, looking into Felicity’s teary eyes. He didn’t need to touch his own face to know he was crying too.

“Now do you understand?” She asked.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Oliver's seen the past, its time for a discussion.

Oliver opened his eyes, and he was back in the loft, looking into Felicity’s teary eyes. He didn’t need to touch his own face to know he was crying too.

“Now do you understand?” She asked.

Speechless he nodded. He’d seen, well, he’d seen everything. Every little moment with Sara, every memory that had been altered. He truly understood for the first time what Barry had done. Why the invasion wasn’t enough. Why the changes to the timeline weren’t enough. Why making sure Barry learned his lesson mattered so much to Felicity.

“How- and he knows this? He knows he did this.”

“Yes, he does.”

“And you’ve lived with these memories, alone, for months.”

“Yes.”

“Is this why you don’t spend as much time with John and JJ anymore?”

“Yes and no. Seeing them is hard, because of the memories, but its also hard because I’m Death. It’s why I’ve pulled away from everyone.”

“Because you’re Death.”

“You don’t see what I see. Every time I see John, the clock over his head shows he has less time than before. The same with Thea, and Lyla and Quentin, and even worse, JJ. He’s two years old, but when I look at him, I’m constantly reminded that he’s going to die.” She explained. “I don’t think humans should be able to be Death.”

“Well at least you aren’t alone anymore.” Oliver said, squeezing her hand. “You’ve got me.”

“Yeah. I’m glad you’re here.” She said with a sad smile. She stood up and walked over to the kitchen. “You hungry? I- doing that kind of thing always depresses me, and food is the only thing I’ve found that can make me feel better.”

“I’ll make something.” Oliver volunteered. He loved Felicity but she was a terrible cook. “And I need to do something with my hands right now.”

“Ok. I’m not sure how- you can use whatever you want, but I’m not totally sure of what I have.” She told him.

After looking through the fridge, Oliver found the ingredients needed to make crepes and decided to make those. Felicity sat at the counter and watched Oliver work. He didn’t outwardly appear any more upset but she could tell by the way his shoulder were slightly hunched that he was agitated.

“Do you hate me?”

“What?” He asked, looking up from the pan.

“Do you hate me for showing you what I did?” She clarified. “For showing you Sara’s life, what happened. Am I a bad person for showing you that and letting you know what could have been?”

“No, you could never be a bad person. And I could never hate you. I knew what I’d learn by asking you to show me. Regardless of anything else, you didn’t deserve to have to live with those memories by yourself. And I didn’t want you to have to suffer by yourself anymore.” He assured her. “You know, we haven’t talked about it.”’

“Talked about what?”

“Why I can’t die. It’s because the universe decided you shouldn’t have to be alone and because you love me, I was chosen to be beside you for as long as you’re Death.”

“I’m sorry for that. I keep apologizing for that and it’ll never be enough.”

“That’s not what I meant. I can’t die because you love me. You still love me.”

“Of course I still love you. We didn’t break up because I stopped loving you. it was because- there were issues. Things we weren’t addressing and learning about William brought those things to the surface.” She said. “I don’t think I could ever stop loving you.”

“I think we should address some of those things. Not today but soon. You love me and I love you and I don’t see a reason why, once we figure a few things out, we should stay broken up.”

“Yeah, we should. But first, crepes.”

 

Across town, Prometheus stood in his hideout, frustrated. He wasn’t sure what else he could do. He shot the Green Arrow in the chest, and he was out on the streets the next night. He’d nearly blown him up, and it didn’t slow him down. He needed to destroy the Green Arrow, but he had no idea how to do it. His mentor had shared everything she knew about the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen, but so far none of the information she shared had worked out.

He decided it was time to escalate things. His original plan wasn’t working, so now he needed to adapt and develop a new plan. He would destroy Oliver Queen and his foolish crusade one way or another. 

* * *

 

**Central City**

“What was she talking about?” Cisco asked Barry once things had settled a little bit after the invasion was stopped.

“What was who talking about?”

“The reaper. Jessica. She was saying a whole bunch about how you can’t stop what’s coming. That something’s coming and you can’t stop it, you can’t change it. What was she talking about?”

“I timetravelled, to the future this time. About five months from now. And I saw something.” He admitted. “I came back to the present and I’ve been trying to change it ever since.”

“What did you see?”

“Death. A lot of death.” He admitted. Jessica might’ve said the future couldn’t be changed but he didn’t believe that. He was going to fix things. He lost both of his parents already, he wasn’t going to lose anyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prometheus makes an appearance and a familiar face shows up, but is everything as it seems?

After Oliver and Felicity ate, they didn’t end up having time to chat. Prometheus, the masked villain who’d shot Oliver weeks ago, had been sighted on the other side of town and the Green Arrow needed to respond. The masked man had been a thorn in the team’s side for weeks, but it wasn’t until recently that they realized he wasn’t a run-of-the-mill bad guy.

Prometheus’s attacks had increased in both frequency and severity over the last week. Before, it seemed like he was only killing other criminals who tried to kill Oliver. He seemed to think that he, and only he, had the right to kill the Green Arrow.  Now, it was clear he was trying to draw Oliver out to kill him. He’d started killing random citizens. If not for the fact innocent people were dying, Felicity might’ve found it funny. Prometheus wanted to kill the only person in Star City who couldn’t die.

When the alert went off on Felicity’s phone, she told Oliver to suit up. Prometheus was holding about a dozen people hostage and threatened to kill one every half hour unless the Green Arrow arrived to face him. “You need to go. This needs to end.”

“I don’t suppose you know who’s under the mask?”

The question was a valid one. Felicity knew things other people didn’t, or couldn’t, know. There was also the off chance that she could figure out who he was by seeing when he was meant to die, according to his countdown clock, and comparing it to their list of suspects. Unfortunately, Felicity couldn’t see people’s ‘expiration dates’ unless she saw them in person.

“Not for sure, and Fate’s being coy and not telling me.” She answered as he left the loft.

“I am not being coy.” Fate said, appearing behind her. “There are events that must transpire and learning the identity of Prometheus too soon will jeopardize those events from happening.”

“I know that and you know that, but it’s a lot to drop on Oliver after the last week, okay?”

Fate vanished as quickly as he appeared and Felicity teleported to the lair. While being Death sucked for the most part, being able to teleport was one of the few perks of the job. It certainly saved her a lot of time.

With the help of Thea and Digg, Oliver was able to get all of the hostages to safety. He engaged Prometheus in a fight, and once again the masked man tried to kill him. Oliver held him off and when it became clear that the fight was going to be a draw and he wasn’t going to be able to kill him, Prometheus dropped a smoke bomb and escaped.

The use of a smoke bomb made Oliver pause. Very few people, hero, antihero or villain, used smoke bombs these days. The only people Oliver knew to use them were trained by the League of Assassins. Perhaps learning his identity wouldn’t be as difficult as Oliver thought it was. Nyssa might have disbanded the League, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t point him in the right direction. The team, pleased at saving the hostages but angry that Prometheus was still at large, went home for the night.

 

Oliver and Felicity were sitting in her apartment talking when suddenly, both of their phones started going crazy. The alarm in the new lair was going crazy. It only went off when either an old access code was used or someone broke in. They both jumped to their feet and rushed out of the door.

Oliver was the first to enter the lair and saw a woman standing there. She turned around when the elevator opened. It was Laurel.

“Hi Ollie.”

“I saw you die.”

“I was saved. I saw this white and its- its just like they say. This angel, she- she reached out to me. But it wasn’t an angel, it was my sister. Sara, she had me teleported to the Waverider. They have this technology that cured my embolism.”

The story sounded like it could be true, but something about the whole thing felt off to Oliver. He wanted to believe her, but his instinct was telling him not to. He didn’t have another explanation for her presence though. He wanted to ask a question about why Sara would do that, why no one else saw the bright light, but they were interrupted before he could say anything.

“Oh, my god. Laurel?” Felicity said coming up behind them. Oliver wondered why she hadn’t exited the elevator with him.

“Hi, Felicity.”

“I can’t believe-“ She went to hug her. When Laurel had her arms around Felicity, the blonde stabbed her in the neck with a dart. Shock, and then anger crossed Laurel’s face before she passed out. “I can’t believe someone would try that trick on me, of all people.”

“She’s not our Laurel, I take it.” He suspected she wasn’t, but a tiny part of him hoped he was wrong.

“No. Our Laurel is at peace. No one gets resurrected without my say so, regardless of when in the timeline it would’ve happened, and I definitely would’ve told you.”

“Ok, then who is she?”

“This is Earth-2’s Laurel Lance, aka Black Siren.”

“How do you know she’s from Earth-2?” He wondered.

“The parallel Earths vibrate at slightly different frequencies from ours. It carries through in what I see when I look at them. Kara, H.R., Not-Laurel, when I look at them, they look kinda off, like I know they aren’t supposed to be there.” She explained. “We should probably put her somewhere that her powers are rendered useless.”

“Powers?”

“She can release a sonic scream. Like our Laurel’s Canary Cry, but worse.” she explained. “Still, who’d break into Star Labs just to send Laurel’s doppelganger here?”

“No idea. Let’s wait til she wakes up and ask her.” He remarked as he picked the unconscious woman up and carried her to the cell they had in the lair. “Does her being a doppelganger affect you at all?”

“Yes and no.” Felicity answered. “Since this isn’t her Earth, unless she’s a very rare exception, I could reap her and it wouldn’t change anything here. Her Earth is another story.”

“What kind of rare exception?”

“Kara is one. I can’t reap her because there are things she’s destined to do on this Earth that haven’t happened yet. If I tried to, I would not be able to actually kill her. Fate would intervene.”  She said. “My plan is to send her back home and let that universe deal with her.”

“After we find out who sent her.”

“After we find out who sent her.” Felicity agreed.

Oliver let out a small laugh. “You know, its kinda weird how things work out. If you weren’t Death, we probably would’ve fell for whatever this ruse was.”

“At first maybe, but I don’t think she could’ve kept it up for long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity confront Black Siren, Prometheus' plan hits a snag and Barry finally comes clean.

Earth-2’s Laurel Lance woke up on a cold floor. She sat up and saw that she was locked in a cell of some kind. There was a pane of glass fused between the bars. She opened her mouth and started to let out a scream, but nothing happened. They must have some kind of dampener in here, just like Star Labs.

She looked around. There was no one in the room with her, which wasn’t surprising. What did surprise her was that she had no idea how she’d gotten here. She went through what she did remember. She snuck into the lair under Oliver’s campaign office. She tripped the alarm, ensuring Oliver would come running to check it out. She put on her ‘weak Laurel’ face and spun a story about how she survived Darhk’s arrow. He seemed to believe it. After that, she couldn’t remember.

The door to the room opened and her head shot up. Oliver walked in. Time to test her acting chops. “Ollie? It’s me. Why are you doing this?”

“You’re not Laurel Lance.”

“What are you talking about? Yes, I am.”

“You may be a Laurel Lance, but you aren’t this Earth’s Laurel Lance.” He explained, crossing his arms.

“What are-“ She started to argue before dropping the act. “What gave me away?”

“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

“Or what?”

“You can stay locked up in here until Cisco gets around to sending you back to your universe. Without your powers.”

“Sending me home is one thing, but how exactly are you gonna get rid of my powers?” She asked sarcastically.

“I guess we’ll find out.” He responded. “Who broke you out of Star Labs?”

“Called himself Prometheus.”

“And why did he do that?”

“Wanted you distracted. Wanted you vulnerable. I don’t know and I didn’t care enough to ask. I was getting what I wanted either way.” She said. “What gave me away?”

“Your story had a giant hole in it.” He said. Her story had several holes, none of which had anything to do with Felicity being Death. Laurel’s funeral was one such hole. Sara’s insistence about not changing the timeline was another. “And its one only this world’s Laurel would know about.”

“So he missed something. Sad, considering how thorough he’s been thus far.”

“I don’t suppose you wanna tell me who Prometheus is.”

“I only do things that benefit me.” She answered. “Telling you who he doesn’t help me at all.”

“Well I’m shocked to hear that.” Felicity said, coming into the room. “Oliver, why don’t you give us a minute?” He gave her a look before leaving the room.

“Oh, let me guess. You’re here to be Bad Cop.” Laurel joked. “Which wasn’t well thought out on your part. He doesn’t scare me and you’re the least intimidating person I’ve ever met.”

“That’s why people are so afraid of me, because I don’t look the part.” Felicity was speaking as both Team Arrow’s hacker and as Death. She didn’t look scary, so people tended to underestimate her. She took a seat in front of the cell, but didn’t say anything.

“What? Is this the part where you threaten to kill me?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” She said. “Because, on one hand, I don’t think you deserve to die. On the other, you came here to impersonate Laurel, our Laurel before you get smart, and manipulate Oliver. You’re also working with a sociopath whose killing innocent people. So, do I want you to die, no. Will I feel bad if you do, also no. I also wouldn’t get my hands dirty for you.”  She began tapping her foot against the ground.

“Are you waiting for something to happen?”

“Maybe. Are you?” She countered.

Thirty seconds later, the lights went out. Felicity would’ve been surprised if Black Siren was a slightly better actress. It was clear that she was simply biding her time until Prometheus, or another ally of Prometheus, gave her the chance to escape. The lights went out, seconds later the emergency lights kicked on, and, in the dim lighting, Felicity heard Laurel speak.

“It’s about time.” She grumbled. She opened her mouth and let out a scream. She was surprised when she didn’t see glass breaking or Felicity effected by the noise. “What the-?”

“Did he, or you, think it would be that easy? I don’t know if I should feel insulted or not.”

Oliver had left the lair entirely after speaking to Laurel, so it was just the two women down there. Apparently, Black Siren’s rescuer grew tired of waiting, because a few minutes after the lights went out, the door handle started to jiggle. “You know you don’t stand a chance, right?” Siren asked as they heard the person on the other side try to open the door. “The only thing stopping him from breaking me out are that door and you, and you aren’t much of a fighter.”

“Maybe not, but I’m not as easy to kill as you might think.” She said as the door was broken down.

Prometheus stepped into the room with his bow ready. “Move.”

“No.”

“I don’t wanna kill you. It’s not time for you to die yet. The Green Arrow hasn’t been taught his lesson yet.”

“You couldn’t kill me if you tried for a hundred years.” She said, taking a step closer to him. Both Prometheus and Black Siren laughed, thinking she was just trying to act tough. It surprised Felicity how honest she could be about being Death, and yet have no one believe her. She cocked her head to the side and looked at the masked man. This was the first time she’d seen him, and thus, this was the first time she saw how long he had before he was going to die. “Interesting.”

“What?”

“Oh, its nothing you’d care about.” She said shaking her head. “ARGUS should be entering the building right….now. So, the way I see it, neither of you will be leaving unrestrained.” She gave a smirk.

“I wouldn’t count on that.” He said as he dropped a smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared, he was gone and several ARGUS agents came into the room.

“Felicity, what the- Laurel?” Digg started to say.

“She’s not this Earth’s Laurel. Don’t get too excited.” Felicity said as she walked away. 

* * *

 

**Central City**

After weeks of worrying about Barry’s behavior, his team finally reached the point where they decided to do something about it. It wasn’t nice, but Iris tricked Barry into consuming some nanites that would knock him out and they locked him in the Pipeline. He woke up with a groan and saw them standing on the other side of the glass.

“Let me out.”

“Sure. As soon as you tell us what you saw.” Joe told him.

“What? You can’t- It doesn’t matter, because its not going to happen, I’m gonna stop it from happening.”

“If it doesn’t matter, then you shouldn’t have any issues telling us.” Iris reasoned.

“Guys, we don’t have time, the city-.”

“Wally’s got a handle on things for the moment.” Cisco told him. “What did you see?”

Barry had a staring contest with iris, Cisco and Joe for several minutes before he lowered his head and started talking. “I watched you die,” He said looking at Joe, “trying to stop Savitar from killing you,” he looked over to Iris, “who died moments later. And I’m pretty sure the rest of you were next.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, Oliver and Felicity all have some explaining to do.

“We- I died?” Iris asked.

“Yes. But it doesn’t matter, because that future isnt gonna happen. I’m gonna stop it.” Barry assured her.

“But still, you saw me die and you didn’t think I needed to know that?” She asked. “Is that why you’ve been so clingy? Did you propose to me because of what you saw?”

“No, I- Iris….”

She took a few steps back. “I- I can’t- I need to get out of here. I’m sorry.” She spun around and left the Pipeline. Cisco and Joe watched her go before turning back to Barry.

“You should’ve said something.”

“It’s not gonna happen.”

“Really? Because Death sent one of his employees to show up, in the middle of a worldwide crisis, just tell you that you couldn’t stop what was going to happen. As optimistic I wanna be, I think she knew what she was talking about.”

“So I should just give up?”

“No, but stopping whatever this bad thing is, it would’ve been easier if we knew from the beginning. We could’ve been helping you all along.”

* * *

 

**Star City**

ARGUS took Black Siren away to a more secure location, leaving Felicity and Oliver to explain what had happened to Digg. They knew this situation was going to take some extra time to discuss. In an effort to make things easier all around, Felicity called Thea and asked her to come to the bunker. She rushed over and looked surprised that everything seemed okay.

“What happened?”

“Prometheus. He broke a prisoner out of Star Labs.” Felicity started to say.

“Ok, and?”

“The prisoner is Laurel’s Earth-2 doppelganger. She’s a metahuman who can let out a sonic scream. He broke her out of Star Labs so that she could come here and pretend to be our Laurel and either spy on us or attack us.”

“Why would they think that would work? This Earth’s Laurel died.” John said.

“She- the story she tried to sell me was that after she started to code, Sara swooped in and took her to the Waverider. They had something on the ship that cured her.” Oliver explained. “And then Sara dropped her off now.”

“Well, as far as stories go, that wasn’t isn’t very far-fetched. How did you know it was a lie?”

“If she was our Laurel, and Sara saved her, who did we bury? Lance saw her in the morgue. Half of Sara’s anger at Barry for Flashpoint is because she wants to change what happened, but knows she shouldn’t.  Her story was plausible but there were too many holes and unanswered questions.” He answered. “On top of that, Jessica told me people coming back from the dead is a one-in-a-trillion occurrence.  And Laurel’s at peace.”

“What do you mean?” Thea asked.

“Laurel’s soul is- I asked Constantine where her soul was. I was worried that maybe, like Sara, she was suffering. He told me she was in Heaven. She’s happy, she’s at peace. I’d like to think that Death wouldn’t remove her from her happy afterlife.”

“Oh. That’s good. I miss her, but that’s a relief.”

“Yeah, it was to me too.”  Oliver said. “Anyway, I realized she wasn’t our Laurel, so Felicity knocked her out and we locked her up.”

“And when the power went out?” John asked. “ARGUS came because they got an SOS from here.”

“The system has a fail-safe. If the power goes out, it sends out a distress signal. Prometheus, I don’t know what he was expecting to happen, but I guess he expected Not-Laurel to trick us or break out of here or something.” Felicity answered. “Anyway, he cut the power, but since the metahuman dampener isn’t tied to the power, it didn’t turn off, meaning her powers were still nullified. He broke in here to see what was taking so long. I held him off for a little bit and then ARGUS arrived.”

“You held him off?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe I pulled it off either.” She said before letting out a yawn. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day. Tell Lyla to make sure their metahuman safeguards have safeguards.”

 

After avoiding capture by ARGUS by the skin of his teeth, Prometheus returned to his hideout. Felicity Smoak had outsmarted him, as much as he loathed admitting it. Clearly, he’d underestimated her. He knew she was smart, but something about their confrontation earlier put him on edge. There was something going on with her that he didn’t know about. He didn’t like not knowing things, they easily turned into complications.

He decided that a call to his mentor was necessary. Maybe she could learn what it was about Felicity Smoak that he’d missed when planning his revenge.

 

The team split up after the explanations were done and Oliver drove Felicity home. “Why did you ask me to leave? When you went to talk to Laurel, why did you ask me to leave the bunker entirely?” He asked when they reached the loft.

“I wanted to test a theory, and you being there might’ve changed things.”

“A theory? About Prometheus, I’m guessing.”

“If you were there, he would’ve attacked you. He wants to kill you. And if he had to fight you he wouldn’t have gotten into the part of the bunker where Laurel and I were. I needed to see him in person.”

“You saw him in person.” Oliver said as the realization hit him. “You know when he’s going to die.”

“Yes, I do. And that’s not the only thing I learned.” She said with a smirk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver gets frustrated with 'the natural order', Prometheus calls for help, and the existence of the multiverse creates some interesting loopholes.

“You saw him in person.” Oliver said as the realization hit him. “You know when he’s going to die.”

“Yes, I do. And that’s not the only thing I learned.” She said with a smirk.

“What do you mean that’s not all you learned?”

“Let’s play a little game and say John is Prometheus.” She started to explain. “I know when he’s gonna die. I’ve been seeing it for months. I did not know until now when Prometheus is going to die.”

“I know that.”

“So, in this hypothetical scenario, if John and Prometheus’s ‘expiration date’ is the same-“

“You can figure out his identity.” Oliver finished. “You know who he is.”

“Yes, he’s-“ Felicity kept talking but no noise came out. “He’s-“

“We discussed this.” Fate said, appearing behind her. “There are events that depend on his identity being revealed at a specific time.”

“Who are you?” Oliver asked.

“Fate.” The entity answered. “I know you want to know the identity of Prometheus now, but it isn’t destined to happen yet.”

“When, then? How many more people have to die before we can stop him?”

“Not as many as you think.” Oliver levelled him with a look. “It sounds cliché, but this is all part of a grander plan. And given who is in charge of life and death, you need not worry as much as you do.”

“I guess I don’t like the idea that we can’t stop him until a certain number of people die.”

“That’s not exactly how it works.” Felicity cut in. “If you’re supposed to die at 4:17 pm tomorrow, you’re going to die at 4:17 pm. It doesn’t matter if its from a heart attack or a crazy man with a sword. The circumstances change, the outcome doesn’t.”

“She is telling the truth.” Fate said. “With that being said, I think I should go now.”

“Wait, can I ask a question if it doesn’t reveal anything specific?” Oliver asked. Fate nodded. “The person behind that mask, have I met him as Oliver Queen?”

“Yes.” Felicity wanted to shout that he spent a lot of time around Prometheus’ alter ego, especially given the number of meetings about Prometheus the mayor’s office had with the district attorney’s office.

 

“What do you mean you were unable to kill him?” Talia asked from the other end of the phone. “I thought your plan was to kill him after you’ve taken everything from him.”

“It is now. At the beginning, I was going to kill him first and then watch his legacy crumble.” Adrian said. “After my attempt to kill him didn’t even slow him down.”

“What do you mean?”

“He had taken several weeks off following a shooting at City Hall. He’d been shot in the chest, nearly died. The very first night he goes back out there, I happened upon him. I shot him in the chest with an arrow and it didn’t even seem to slow him down.” He said. “I didn’t call you to talk about Oliver Queen. We need to talk about his ex-fiance, Felicity Smoak.”

“What about her? I was under the impression she was his tech support and nothing more.”

“Clearly, there’s something we missed. Because not only did she predict what my plan was, but she had a contingency already in place.”

“You’ve become predictable then.”

“No, that’s not it. There’s something about her we missed. Felicity Smoak should’ve been terrified when I arrived. Instead, when I told her to move or I’d have to kill her, she told me that I couldn’t kill her if I tried for a thousand years.”

“She thinks she’s brave. It’s not the problem you think it is. Don’t call me again over such trivial matters.” Talia said before hanging up.

 

The door to Laurel’s cell at ARGUS’s secret base closed behind her. When Chase broke her out of the Pipeline, he promised her her freedom. Now, it seemed like she’d swapped one cell for another, much harder to escape cell. She knew his plan went wrong, but there was a difference between a plan going wrong and a plan failing completely. She knew it was a long shot, but Black Siren opened her mouth and let out a sonic scream. As expected, it did nothing.

“Did you really expect that to work?” One of the agents in the room asked.

“It was worth a shot. So, what happens now?”

“Well, barring any drastic changes in reality, you’re gonna be our guest, indefinitely.”

“This is the United States. You can’t hold someone in prison, forever, without a trial.”

“With you, we can. Because while you’re a US citizen, you’re not a US citizen of this Earth. That, combined with your actions in Central City, means you’re a non-American terrorist. Patriot Act lets us keep you here until you die.”

“Is that supposed to scare me into talking?” She mocked.

“We’ve got you imprisoned. No one knows where you are. We don’t want, or need, to scare you. I hope you like this room, because you’re never gonna leave it.”

 

After Fate left the bunker, Oliver and Felicity went back to the loft. Neither was happy that catching or stopping Prometheus was still put on hold. Oliver seemed more upset, but he supposed that was because he still didn’t know the man’s identity or why the upcoming events needed to unfold the way they did.

“Since you can’t tell me about Prometheus, can you tell me about some of the other ominous future events you’ve been avoiding?”

“Yeah, I guess I can.” She sighed. ‘What do you wanna know?”

“What’s Barry so freaked out about?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity discuss the future and Chase makes a discovery.

“Since you can’t tell me about Prometheus, can you tell me about some of the other ominous future events you’ve been avoiding?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah, I guess I can.” Felicity sighed. “What do you wanna know?”

“What’s Barry so freaked out about?”

“Losing Iris and Joe. He traveled to the future by mistake and he saw Joe die trying to save Iris who died a few moments later.”

“You’re gonna kill Iris?”

“I’m not, a crazed speedster is. Or, at least that’s what Barry thinks.” She clarified.

“Ok, you’re gonna need to explain that one a little more to me.”

“There’s a reason why he saw this when he traveled to the future. Remember why the Powers That Be are trying to teach Barry a lesson in the first place?”

“Because he messed with the timeline without thinking about the consequences.”

“Exactly. Traveling to the future is an even bigger issue than traveling to the past. The future is dependent on events that haven’t happened yet. You can’t see a possible future, come back to the present and try to change it, because you don’t know what events caused that future to happen. it’s a domino effect. And I’m pretty sure Barry’s been told that and decided to ignore it, which is why its gonna happen.”

“I’m confused.”

“It’s a paradox. The actions Barry takes to stop Iris’s death creates the circumstances that causes her death.” She explained. “In trying to stop her death, he causes it.”

“But why would you let him see that in the first place? All the Powers That Be are on board, which means you had to agree to this. Your solution to him trying to save his mother is to kill the woman he’s in love with.”

“Do you wanna know what Time’s original idea for a punishment was? Killing everyone in Central City as a result of Barry’s fight with his latest nemesis. He’d beat the bad guy, but at the cost of every person in the city. It took me an extremely long time and a lot of arguing to bring him down to the level we’re currently at. And in case you weren’t listening, I said that that’s what he thinks happens. Because he saw two minutes of the future with absolutely no context and thinks he knows what he saw.”

“So, she isn’t gonna die.”

“You’ll see how it unfolds. The situation’s nearing its conclusion pretty quickly.” Felicity answered. “You’re gonna wanna answer your phone.”

Seconds later, Oliver’s phone began to rang. Prometheus had struck again. A middle school teacher named Jack Romin had been killed on his way into work that morning. He got off the phone with Lance and turned to Felicity.

“Prometheus struck again.”

“I know. Jack Romin, he teaches 6th grade English. Evangeline reaped him a few minutes ago.”

“Evangeline?”

“The reaper who escorted Tommy and Laurel to the afterlife. She’s very nice. If someone had to take me, I’d want either her or Jessica.” Felicity answered. “Mr. Romin is dead, and in a not-so-shocking turn of events, he has a connection to your father’s list.”

The team had worked out a few weeks back that some of Prometheus’ targets had names that were anagrams of names from Robert Queen’s list.

“Who?”

“Nick Major.” She said. “I know it sounds bad, but this is good news.”

“How is it good news?”

“Because Jack Romin’s one of the last people Prometheus kills.”

 

As the mayor, Oliver met Quentin at the crime scene to try and figure out what to do and what statement to make about the most recent killing. Citizens were scared and beginning to become angry that Prometheus hadn’t been apprehended. That night, Oliver went out as the Green Arrow, with Speedy and Spartan, to investigate further and hope to draw the masked killer out. He wasn’t able to find any clues or evidence, but he did manage to get Prometheus’s attention.

“So, your masked enemy was spotted two blocks away from where you are right now.” Felicity reported.

“We’re on it.” Thea responded.

“No, you aren’t.” Oliver said, turning to face his sister. “I need to do this alone.”

“He’ll kill you, man. He wants to kill you.” John said,

“He’s had plenty of chances and hasn’t done it. I don’t think he wants me dead just yet.” Oliver pointed out. “But I want to talk to him, and I think if all of us show up, he’s gonna take that the wrong way.”

“I hate to agree with this plan, I’ve seen enough movies, but you three do need to split up.” Felicity said. “We’ve got Prometheus by you, some gang trouble in the Glades and what looks like an armed robbery in Pennytown.”

John and Thea weren’t happy about it, but they left Oliver to deal with the other two situations. Felicity opened a private channel just to Oliver and told him Prometheus hadn’t moved since the sighting was called in. She was pretty sure he was waiting for Oliver.

Oliver rappelled up to the rooftop where Prometheus stood, looking over the city. He stood at the far end of the roof and waited for the other man to notice him.

“I was wondering when you’d show up.” he said as he turned to face Oliver. “Let me guess, you’re here to reason with me.”

“If I can, yes.”

“You should know why that won’t work.”

“Why should I know that? I don’t even know why you’re doing this.”

“You don’t? I thought it was obvious. You think you’re a hero. You think you’ve saved this city, that you’ve made things better.” Prometheus said. “I’m here to show you what you really are.”

“And what might that be?”

“I think you know. Deep down, you know.” Prometheus said as he raised his bow and aimed it at Oliver.

He fired two arrows at him, which Oliver dodged while firing his own arrows back. They began fighting, but were too evenly matched for either to get the upper hand. Prometheus did manage to get a number of lucky shots in and, after about five minutes, stabbed Oliver in the leg with one of his arrows.  Oliver pulled said arrow out and kept fighting. The reaction shocked his opponent, who backed towards the edge of the roof and jumped off.

 

Chase made it back to his hideout and made another call to Talia. “Please do not tell me you called to give me another pointless update about Oliver Queen.” Talia wanted Oliver dead, but she didn’t have the same obsession as Chase did, and his devotion to bringing Oliver down had started to annoy her.

“He isn’t an average human. There’s something you don’t know about him.”

“And what makes you say that?” She said in an annoyed tone.

“I stabbed him with an arrow laced with that pit viper venom you’re a fan of.” His plan was to encounter Oliver as the Green Arrow, knock him out and take him somewhere to remind Oliver Queen who he really was and make him realize he wasn’t a hero.

“So you have him captive somewhere to torture. Bravo, I suppose.”

“No, I don’t. Because he just pulled the arrow out and kept going like nothing happened. it didn’t knock him out, it didn’t even slow him down.”

“And finally your reports spark my interest.” She said. “I will be in the city in two days. Do not make a move against Oliver until I arrive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver gets closer to discovering Prometheus's identity and Barry asks for a pretty big favor.

“I will be in the city in two days. Do not make a move against Oliver until I arrive.” Talia told Chase before hanging up.

The madman was left staring at the phone, wondering what that meant. Yes, Oliver’s resistance to the pit viper venom was odd, and it complicated his plans for the archer, but Chase was surprised the that news, and that news alone, warranted a visit from his mentor. Especially since, she’d told him over a year ago, that training him was as far as she was willing to go against Oliver. He’d tried to talk her into weakening here stance, but she refused. Until now. What could that mean?

 

While Chase was trying to work out what Talia’s change in attitude meant, Oliver made it back to the foundry and reported that, while Prometheus had tried to kill him, he hadn’t succeeded. He also had, accidentally, told Oliver what his motives were. The reason why he was killing people, the reason he’d started all of this was to show Oliver ‘who he really was’ and that he wasn’t a hero.

“I still don’t understand why he’s using names from the List though.”

“Well, he only started doing that when he didn’t think he had enough of your attention.” Thea pointed out. “Once we found a pattern, and realized the connection to the List, our interest in him got stronger.”

“I still don’t get why he’s doing it. What’s his reasoning?”

“So, you know how my mom worked nights most of the time?” Felicity said. “That meant her ‘evenings’ and ‘free time’ were the middle of the day. So that left her with either soap operas or true crimes shows to watch. If I was sick or it was the summer, I made us watch the latter.”

“I don’t see where you’re going with this.” Oliver admitted.

“Those shows normally are about solving a murder. You know what I started to notice after a while? People kill other people for one of three reasons. Love, money or revenge. Prometheus is probably the same.” She said. “And I think we can rule out love or money.”

“So, he’s after revenge.” Digg said.

“And he knows about the List.” Oliver said. “Which makes me think he’s trying to avenge someone from the List.”

“If only we could figure out who?” Felicity remarked playfully.

“You’re already running searches, aren’t you?”

“Do you even need to ask?” She said. She couldn’t tell Oliver who Prometheus was, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t point him in the right direction or give him a very short list of possible suspects. It wouldn’t change things all that much, since Oliver was likely already considering the revenge angle.

Before the team left in the morning, Felicity had given Oliver the list of surviving relatives from the people on the list. She omitted all women and anyone who had moved out of the area. Simon Morrison, or as he was better known Adrian Chase, was in the middle of the list. 

* * *

 

**Central City**

It took a few days after Barry finally admitted what he’d seen in the future and what he was trying to change before Cisco had an idea. He’d been working on fixing a glitch with his Vibe-gauntlets when the idea suddenly came to him. Excited, he opened a breach into the Cortex, causing everyone except Barry to jump in surprise when he spoke.

“Jessica said you couldn’t change the future right? She’s the one who said you can’t fight City Hall or whatever.” Cisco said.

“Yes.”

“And she has a direct connection to Death, right? I mean, she works for Death after all.”

“Yeah.” Barry replied in a confused tone.

“Jessica knows Death. She also knows Oliver. Maybe we can use that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What if we convince Oliver to let us talk to Jessica to get a message to Death? Convince Death to change things?”

“She’s a reaper though, she only shows up when someone dies.” Caitlin said. “Which means the only way to talk to her would be if one of us died and then we brought them back.”

“Not really. She appeared to us without someone dying.” Barry remarked. “We should at least ask Oliver about it. The worst thing he can do is say he doesn’t know how to get in touch with her.”

“It seems like we might be jumping the gun.” HR said.

“It’s Iris and Joe. Hell, it might be all of you.” He argued. “I’ve gotta at least try.” 

* * *

 

**Star City**

Felicity was pouring her third cup of coffee for the morning when she looked off into the distance for a few seconds before looking back at Oliver. “Barry’s on his way.”

“Why?”

“You know Jess, Jess works for me. If he can talk to Jess, maybe she can talk me into changing my mind.” She said with a shrug. “It’s not the biggest leap they could take.”

“Does he think I can just snap my fingers and make Jessica show up?”

“No, but you’re the only person other than Sara who’s gone to the In-Between and come back as far as he knows. He probably wants to know how you did it.”

“The doctors restarted my heart.”

“That isn’t what happened the second time. You got sent back. Maybe tell him about that.”

“You want to kill Barry?”

“No, but the sooner he gives up on trying to talk Death down, the sooner things can proceed they way they need to. including where Prometheus is concerned.” Felicity explained. “And three, two, one.”

There was a knock at the door. Felicity vanished. Oliver stood up to open it, even though he knew who it was.

“Hi, Oliver. I need a favor.” Barry said.

“What is it?”

“I need to talk to that reaper, Jessica. Do you know how to reach her?”

“She’s a reaper, Barry. She doesn’t exactly have a phone. The last time I saw her, I had to-” He stopped himself.

“You had to what?”

“An acquaintance of mine projected his soul and mine into what most people call Limbo.” Oliver said. “I was trying to find out why Death sent me back the first time.”

“Do you know how he did it?”

“Barry, this is crazy.”

“Oliver, if I don’t do something, don’t manage to talk Death down, Iris is gonna die. I can’t- I won’t let that happen.” he said. “How do I project my soul into Limbo?”

“There’s a spell, but it requires two people.” He admitted. “Everything we need is in the lair.”

“Make a list and I’ll get it.”

Oliver made the list and Barry sped off to the bunker and came back less than three minutes later with everything Oliver asked for. The archer got to work setting everything up and told Barry to lie down and stay still. He started reciting the spell Constantine had used and waited for something to happen. After about thirty seconds, both men lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Barry go on a trip and Talia arrives in town.

Barry’s eyes shot open and he looked to his left. He saw a pair of feet next to his head and looked up to see Oliver standing over him. He was holding a hand out and helped Barry to his feet. The speedster was confused. Where was he? How did he get here? The last thing he remembered was racing to Star City to talk to Oliver about Iris’s death.

“Where are we?” They were in what looked like an airport or a train station, except the building was completely empty.

“Limbo. You wanted to talk to Jessica, remember? So we had to project our souls here.”

“Ok, why are you dressed like that?” Barry had run to Star City in his suit and, in Limbo, he was still wearing his Flash suit. When he came to the loft, Oliver had already gotten dressed for work. Now, however, he had a more relaxed look. His designer suit was replaced by a green zip-up hoodie, a grey shirt and a pair of black sweatpants. For some reason, the outfit reminded him of the time he and Felicity spent in Ivy Town and that made him smile.

“I don’t-“

“Your appearances on this plane are impacted by the way Death views you.” Jessica said from behind them. “A soldier, for example, might appear dressed in fatigues. I can’t say why Oliver’s dressed like this, but I suppose Death sees you, Barry, as being inseparable from your position as the Flash.”

“Nice to see you Jessica.” Oliver said.

“You shouldn’t be here, Oliver.” She said. “Death doesn’t want you here. You know that.”

“Wait, are we dead? Like dead, dead?”

“No, you aren’t. However, if you stay on this plane for too long, you may not be able to return to your body and then you will be dead. Which is why Death freaks out when she feels him travel here.”

“Why’s Death like Oliver so much?”

“I don’t know, she just does.” Jessica shrugged. “It probably has something to do with destiny or fate or something. Doesn’t matter to me, not my paygrade. I’m gonna send you both back now.”

“Wait! We- I need to talk to you.” Barry said hastily.

“About what?”

“Iris, my fiancé. She’s- she’s gonna die because of what I did, because of Flashpoint. I wanna- I was wondering if-.”

“Let me guess. You want me to go to my boss and convince her to let Iris live. You learned your lesson, you saw the light and you promise not to do it again.”

“So, you’ll do it?”

“No, I won’t. You still don’t get it. It’s not a simple cause and effect. Someone doesn’t die just because Death points them and says ‘that one’.”

“You work for Death, you can talk to her.”

“Death and I are friendly, but we aren’t friends. I do my job, and I do it well, but I don’t have any say in who I reap. Or who dies. And even if I did agree with you, which I’m not saying I do, and I spoke with her, nothing’s going to come of it. I told you, its been decided. You can’t change what’s going to happen.”

“You said that the Powers That Be decided this would happen. They made a choice, they can change their minds.”

“They can change them, but they won’t. I don’t think you fully understand what you did. How angry you made them.”

“How angry?” Oliver wondered.

“Last time Death got this angry, Noah started building a boat.” Jessica said. “She’s not going to change her mind. You won’t be able to talk your way out of this one.”

A very loud bang shook the building. “What was that?”

“That was my boss being really pissed about Oliver being in the In-Between. I told you he wasn’t supposed to be here.” She answered. “Time to go.”

“No, wait-“ Barry argued. He felt an invisible rope pull him away from the reaper and no matter how hard he fought, he couldn’t get any closer to her.

“Time to wake up.”

 

“What is it with you and making banging noises?” Jessica asked as she turned around to face Felicity. “You know ghosts are the ones who make lots of noises, right?”

“It did its job didn’t it? it stopped the conversation in its tracks and you were able to send them back to the living world.” She explained. “And the conversation was going in circles anyway.”

“Can I ask a question you don’t have to answer?” The raven-haired woman asked. “Why was Oliver dressed like that?”

“He wore stuff like that in Ivy Town a lot. Things were simpler then and we were both happy. So, I don’t see him as the mayor or the Green Arrow, I see him as the man I love and that period of time was the first time he was really happy in a really long time.”

“That’s kinda cheesy, but who am I to judge?” The reaper said with a shrug.

 

Barry groaned and rolled onto his side. He’d gone to Limbo, he’d asked the reaper to help him, but she rejected his plea. He’d failed Iris. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do now. Barry heard movement several feet away from him and looked over.

Oliver was standing in the loft’s kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee. “You’re gonna need this. What we did, it kinda linger, making you foggy all day. Or at least, that’s what happened to me last time.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“What would you like me to say? I didn’t think it would work. I helped on the off chance that it would and because you seemed adamant.” The archer answered. “You weren’t gonna be able to talk Death down, or even talk Jessica into considering talking to Death about Iris.”

Barry was about to respond when Felicity unlocked the door. “Hi, honey. I’m- Barry? What brings you by?”

“I needed Oliver’s help with something. He did me the favor but- it didn’t work out.” he admitted. “I’ve gotta get back to Central City.” He sped off.

“Needless to say, he didn’t take the way things went in the In-Between very well.” Oliver said.

“Short of getting exactly what he wanted, he was never going to. Still, it had to happen and it’s a moment of growth.” She responded.

“I’m not sure about that, but you’d know. What was with my outfit there?”

“It was from Ivy Town. You were happy, I was happy. We didn’t have Arrow stuff or any supervillains to worry about. Things were simpler then.” She explained.  “That’s how I see you, not as the Green Arrow, but as the man I love.”

“You’re such a sap.” He said as he bent down to kiss her.

 

In a different part of town, Adrian Chase was sharpening his throwing stars and daydreaming about hurting Oliver Queen. He was going to prevail, he was going to make Oliver pay, and then, he’d completely destroy him. He became angrier the more he thought about how often he’d failed when facing Oliver and the anger only made him hate Oliver more.

“If this is what you do to plan your revenge, its no wonder you’ve failed.” Talia said from behind him, startling him.

“Thought you weren’t getting here until tomorrow.” He said.

“Clearly, I arrived early. Tell me everything that’s happened where Oliver Queen is concerned.”

“I’ve been doing that. Why do you suddenly care?”

“Because, now that we know he may not be mortal, it changes things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> What does Talia think is going on?


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chase makes a move against Oliver. It isn't a great plan, not that he knows that.

“Tell me everything that’s happened where Oliver Queen is concerned.” Talia said.

“I’ve been doing that. Why do you suddenly care?” Chase countered.

“Because, now that we know he may not be mortal, it changes things.”

“How does it change things?”

“Because if Oliver Queen cannot die, it means one of two things. Either he has become something other than human or he’s located a new Lazarus Pit.”

“A what?”

“It is a pool with waters of mystical abilities. It will heal nearly any injury.” She explained. “I thought the only one in existence had been destroyed by…an old acquaintance.”

“And if he didn’t find this Pit, but he’s just no longer human?”

“Then we will learn how he did it and learn how to kill him.” She promised. “The world may be more complicated now with the existence of metahumans, but anything that lives can be killed one way or another.”

“As long as we destroy everything Oliver’s built, I’m fine with that. Any idea how to start?”

“We begin by drawing him out, obviously.” Talia answered.

 

Oliver made his way through Felicity’s list of suspects rather quickly. He wasn’t sure if she’d listed the name in any order, or if it was just random. Still, the first five names were very easy to cross off the list. Two were too short, one wasn’t in shape enough to be Prometheus. The fourth and fifth both had concrete alibis for when some of the more recent murders happened. When Oliver reached the sixth name on the list, however he paused. Simon Morrison. That name didn’t ring a bell, there wasn’t a Morrison on his father’s list. Who would Simon Morrison be trying to avenge?

Unsure of what this meant, Oliver did the only thing he could think of. He called Felicity. “Who is Simon Morrison and why is he on your list?”

“Claybourne. I’m in the middle of something. something work related. I’m gonna need to call you back.” She said before hanging up.

What could Felicity possibly be in the middle of doing?

 

Felicity ended her call with Oliver and turned back to face the man she was trying to help into the afterlife. ‘Trying’ was the operative word in this case. The man refused to believe that he was dead at first, and was now trying to get brought back to life.

“Send me back.” He shouted.

“No.”

“I said, send me back!” He ordered as he pulled out a gun and aimed it at her. “I’ve got unfinished business.” He’d been killed by a rival gang and wasn’t going to rest until he got even with them. it wasn’t unusual for people to bargain with Death, but it was rare for someone to outright threaten Death.

“And it will stay unfinished. Put the gun down. Let me take you to the afterlife.”

“I’m not going. I’ll use this.” He threatened.

“And what exactly do you think that’s going to do? You’re already dead and I can’t be killed. And despite appearances, we aren’t in the land of living right now, so nothing you do will impact the mortal world.” Felicity said. She could understand the man being angry, or wanting more time, but she drew the line at being threatened. The man died because it was his time to die, there was nothing more to it.

“Bullshit!” The man shouted as he shot in her direction. As soon as the bullet exited the barrel, it vanished. “What the-?”

“I told you the gun wouldn’t make a difference. Time to go.” Felicity said, uncrossing her arms and laying one hand on the man’s shoulder. He was sent to the afterlife as soon as her hand made contact.

 

As soon as Felicity told Oliver that Simon Morrison was connected to Justin Claybourne, he recognized the name. Claybourne had tried to release weaponized tuberculosis in order to drive up the price of his company’s drugs to treat the disease. Oliver tried to intimidate Claybourne into abandoning his plans, but it didn’t work, so he killed him. When he looked into the man again, trying to find a connection to Morrison, he learned that Simon Morrison was Justin Claybourne’s illegitimate son. Searching for information on Morrison was difficult since it seemed like the man had gone off the grid shortly after his father’s death. Still, as Felicity once told him, nothing on the internet could actually be deleted, and eventually he was able to find an old photo of Simon.

“Yeah, it surprised me too.” Felicity said from behind him. He jumped about three feet in the air. “Chase seemed so…not murder-y.”

“He’s- there’s no- Adrian Chase is Prometheus?”

“Yes, and I’ve wanted to tell you that for a while. But, you know, fate. Now comes the hard part.”

“Hard part?”

“Finding out who he is is one thing. Catching him, stopping him, that’s something else entirely.”

“How do we do that?”

“I can’t tell you. Again, it has to do with fate and letting things unfold the way they’re meant to. But if I had to give you a nudge, a call to Lyla might be a good start.”

“It’s almost nightfall and he-“

“Prometheus isn’t killing anyone tonight.” She said in a confident tone. “Trust me, I’d know.”

“If you’re sure…”

“The sooner you get to ARGUS, the sooner they can start looking into him.” She said. “Go.”

Oliver left and Felicity sat down on her couch and poured herself a glass of wine. About an hour after Oliver left, there was a crash behind her as someone broke through the loft’s window.

“Was that necessary? It wasn’t even locked.” She said as she stood to face the intruder.

“You should be scared.”

“And why is that, Prometheus? Or should I call you Adrian?” She asked.

“You know who I am?”

“Of course I do. I knew the last time I ran into you. More importantly, Oliver knows too.” She answered before turning to Chase’s companion. “Based on the scowl, you must be Talia. You and your sister have that in common.”

“You have a sister?” Chase asked.

“That is not why we came here.”

“Let me guess, take me hostage. Draw Oliver out and kill him?” Felicity asked.

“Something like that.”

“I don’t think you’ve really given this enough thought.” She responded. Chase and Talia really had no idea what they were dealing with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver's war against Prometheus comes to an abrupt, and unexpected, end.

“Let me guess, your plan is to take me hostage. Draw Oliver out and kill him?” Felicity asked.

“Something like that.” Adrian answered.

“I don’t think you’ve really given this enough thought.” She responded. Chase and Talia really had no idea what they were dealing with.

“I’ve been planning this for over four years. I’ve focused on nothing else. There’s nothing about Oliver I don’t know. No information I could’ve missed. No unknown variable here.” Chase said.

Felicity knew that that wasn’t true. She knew there was a lot of information Chase and Talia didn’t know. Information they couldn’t know, and that information would end up screwing them over in the end. So, instead of saying anything, she sat there and let them dig themselves into a bigger hole.

Rather than take Felicity to another location, Talia and Adrian just kept her in the loft and refused to let her leave their sight.

Being Death, Felicity easily could’ve left at any time. She could’ve taken out her scythe and killed them too. Instead, she decided to sit on the couch, pretend to be scared and just wait for what was going to happen.

“Why don’t you seem as terrified as you should be?” Chase asked after her first move wasn’t calling Oliver for help.

“Because you aren’t gonna kill me. So I don’t really have anything to be scared of.”

“How do you know we are not planning to kill you?” Talia asked.

“This whole thing is about getting revenge on Oliver, right? He wants revenge because Oliver killed his father. You helped him because he killed yours.” She said.

 “Your point?”

“You aren’t gonna do anything if Oliver isn’t here to witness it.” She said. she honestly thought this behavior was boring and predictable, bit then again, she’d seen too much in the last few months for much to surprise her.

“Your confidence-“ Talia started to say, but before she could finish, Felicity’s phone rang.

“Let’s put your assumption to the test.” Chase said as he took her phone.

“Hey Felicity, I-“

“Not Felicity.” Chase responded. “Hello, Oliver.”

“Adrian. Where is Felicity?”

“She’s right here next to me. Wanna say hi?”

“Put her on the phone.” Oliver barked.

“So bossy.” He tsked. “Say hi Felicity.”

“Oliver, I’m fine. We’re just hanging out at the loft.” Felicity said when Chase held the phone out to her. “And I got to meet your friend Talia.”

Chase’s face turned murderous as he tore the phone away from Felicity. Talia’s involvement in his plan was supposed to stay secret. No one was supposed to know that she was involved in this or that she was the one who trained Chase. Now that Oliver knew Talia was there, he wouldn’t be entering the situation blind.

 

Oliver called Felicity just to check in on her after he finished telling ARGUS Prometheus’s identity. He could tell that there was something else that was bugging her, but he was too excited about finally being able to unmask Prometheus to ask right away. He left Lyla’s office and decided to call her.

“Hey, Felicity, I-“

“Not Felicity.” Chase said in a smug tone. “Hello Oliver.”

Oliver felt like his entire world had been tilted on its axis. Felicity was in danger. Chase had Felicity. To make things worse, Talia was apparently working with Chase. He knew Felicity couldn’t die, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t worry about her. Chase and Talia could both hurt Felicity without killing her.

He stormed out of ARGUS and headed to the loft.

 

Shortly after hanging up on Oliver, Chase was pacing the loft, waiting for him to show up. Felicity had told him exactly where they were. He knew how dangerous Talia and Chase were, but he hadn’t come to save his girlfriend yet. What was taking him so long?

Adrian was about to call Oliver back from Felicity’s phone when the door to the loft opened. Oliver walked in armed with his bow and arrow. He already had an arrow nocked and was aiming it at Chase. “How are you still this predictable?” Chase asked as he grabbed Felicity and pulled her in front of him so that Oliver couldn’t shoot him.

“You really should be more mindful of your surroundings.” Talia said as she came up behind Oliver.

“Talia. I know why he’s doing this, but why are you?”

“The reasoning is-“

“She’s Nyssa’s old sister. You killed her father, so she decided to help Chase destroy you or whatever.” Felicity said, cutting Talia’s tirade off.

“You should really stop talking.” Chase warned. “You brought Oliver here and that’s all we needed you for.”

Seeing Talia as the bigger threat, Oliver began fighting her. They went back and forth until Talia fired an arrow at Oliver, which hit him in the leg. She waited for the tranquilizer to take effect, but nothing happened. Oliver grunted and pulled the arrow out of his leg and tossed it away. He swung an arm out towards Talia.

“That is not possible. I laced that arrow with enough drugs to kill an army. How are you still standing?” She asked. Using the Lazarus Put didn’t explain how Oliver managed to remain conscious, let alone fighting.

The blonde rolled her eyes and, like she wanted to do when they first broke in, teleported across the room. Her movement startled Talia enough that Oliver was able to wipe her feet out from under her. Oliver then fired an ensnarement arrow at Chase, restraining him.

“I told you hadn’t really thought this through.” Felicity said.

“She’s a metahuman and you didn’t think to tell me?” Chase yelled at Talia.

“I didn’t-“  Oliver shot her with a tranq arrow, shutting her up.

“Not a metahuman.” Felicity said. “ARGUS on their way?”

“Yeah. Called them on the way over.”

“You think handing me over to ARGUS is gonna do anything? No prison can hold me. I’ll get out. I’ll get out and I’ll find you. I’ll finish what I’ve started.” Chase said with a laugh.

Felicity moved over to the coat closet. “You know, you might be right about that.”

“What are you doing?” Oliver asked.

“Remember what I told you about fate? This is part of what I was talking about.” She said.

“You said no one was going to die today.”

“No, I said Prometheus wasn’t going to kill anyone today. There’s a difference.” Felicity said as she pulled out the scythe. “Today’s a very important day. It’s the day that Prometheus dies.”

She stabbed Prometheus in the chest with Death’s scythe. He died almost instantly and the wound looked like it could’ve been caused by Talia’s sword.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I love the episode 'Lian Yu' but a large amount of what happened after it I don't like for one reason or another. Killing Chase before he gets those plans set in motion avoids that.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver discuss how their confrontation with Chase could've ended and why his death now matters in the long run.

After Chase was killed by Felicity’s scythe, the rest of the night passed quickly. ARGUS arrived right as Talia woke up from the tranquilizer. She was still a little loopy, so she was caught off guard by them and relatively easy to arrest. Some CSIs came to take care of the body and get everything in order. Neither Oliver nor Felicity knew how exactly Adrian Chase was going to disappear or be found dead, but they didn’t really care that much either.

Chase was stopped. His plan had failed and the string of deaths that had the entire city completely terrified had ended. It would be difficult moving forward, they both knew that. The city wanted Prometheus caught and brought to justice, which couldn’t happen. They also couldn’t announce Prometheus was dead, because the press would want to know his identity, which would undo every conviction Chase managed to secure since becoming the DA. Eventually, all of the ARGUS agents left and Felicity and Oliver were left alone in the silent apartment.

“How did he die?” Oliver asked.

“What?”

“You told me that fate wasn’t that simple. That every victim Prometheus killed would’ve died that day anyway, just under different circumstances. Logic says that the same would be true for Adrian. If you didn’t kill him with the scythe, what would’ve happened?”

“He made a comment that angers you, so you turned him over, which meant you were distracted when he cut through the ropes tying him up. He got a lucky shot in, which gave him an opening to put some distance between you. Then, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a disposable cell phone and a photo. It’s of Samantha and William in the town where they’re hiding, taken from a few yards away. You killed him, because he told you that he had someone watching them both and all he had to do was make a call and they’d be killed. He was about to dial the phone in his hand, so you shoot him.” She told Oliver. “You didn’t want to resort to killing him, but given the choice between killing him or letting something happen to William, you chose your son.”

“He has someone watching William? What if his lackey has ‘if you don’t hear from me, kill them’ orders?” Oliver asked panicking.

“He doesn’t, because his plan wasn’t to kill you, it was to abduct you. He wanted to ‘show you yourself’ remember? William was just leverage in case you put up too much of a fight.” She explained. “Also, the person watching them got arrested about ten minutes before that would’ve happened. He really should’ve just paid those parking tickets.”

Oliver felt a lot of things at the moment. Relief it was over. Conflicted about how it ended. Angry about how in the dark he was about what was going on. “You know, for someone who hates when people keep secrets from her, you sure keep a lot from other people.”

His comment put her on edge and made her a little defensive. “You think I like having to keep secrets? You think its easy for me to have to wait for things to play out? I wanted to tell you who Prometheus was as soon as I learned who he was. I hate to wait months for you to work out that I was Death. The only person I could be completely honest with until then was Laurel, which was painful for a different reason.”

“You could’ve said something, given me a hint.”

“No, I couldn’t. You saw what happened when I tried. I bent the rules as much as I could, but I do have to abide by them.” She explained. “Telling you what’s going to happen creates a paradox, it causes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sometimes, it even knocks the entire timeline out of alignment. I did the best I could, all that I could.”

“I would’ve killed him when I didn’t need to. it would’ve just proven his point.” He argued.

“Why do you think I killed him instead?” She said. “Fate said he had to die. it didn’t say you had to kill him. I knew how important proving him wrong was to you, I didn’t wanna take that away from you.”

It was quiet in the loft for several minutes. Oliver didn’t know what to say about what Felicity said, and she didn’t want to revisit the past or rehash the same ‘I wanna tell you but I can’t’ argument about the complications of having to play by the rules.

“What-? So, you said learning Chase’s secret too soon would jeopardize certain events from happening. We learned who he was, he’s no longer at large, which means those other events are gonna happen right?”

“Right.”

“So, what happens now?”

“We, meaning the team, have some less murder-happy people to deal with, while also winding up involved in Barry’s search for a way to save Iris.”

“But I couldn’t help him.”

“No, you couldn’t make the problem go away completely. There’s a difference.” Felicity answered. “Cause and effect. Chase being out of the way means you aren’t preoccupied when he comes up with another option. This time, his aim isn’t ‘convince Death to let Iris live’ but instead ‘make sure her killer can’t be at the place where she dies at the exact time that she dies’. He could do it without you, but you being involved has the best outcome.”

“If she survives either way, what does my presence change?”

“Do you remember what the first or second thing Jessica said to Barry was?”

“Something about how his actions don’t exist in a vacuum.” He answered.

“Exactly. No action, consequence or reaction exists in isolation. If it did, I wouldn’t be Death.” Felicity said.

“Speaking of that, any idea on how to stop being Death?”

“No clue. Maybe I’ve gotta do this until I’ve reaped as many people as the nuke killed or something.”

“You should know by now that it does not work like that.” Fate said from behind her. “But if you would like to know, I think you are ready to learn the answer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> What will Fate say? How does Felicity stop being Death?


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity is told how she can stop being Death, it's better than she thought it would be, and she and Oliver discuss her tendency to not tell him important things.

“No action, consequence or reaction exists in isolation. If it did, I wouldn’t be Death.” Felicity said.

“Speaking of that, any idea on how to stop being Death?”

“No clue. Maybe I’ve gotta do this until I’ve reaped as many people as the nuke killed or something.”

“You should know by now that it does not work like that.” Fate said from behind her. “But if you would like to know, I think you are ready to learn the answer.”

“There’s a way for me to stop being Death? That wasn’t just something you said so that I wouldn’t get pissed off?” Felicity asked.

“I think you realize that I care very little about upsetting people or making them angry. I do my job, just as you do, and being a primordial entity means I have no reason to fear or even care about retribution.” He said. “I do not believe in giving someone false hope either. I would not have told you there would come a day when you were no longer Death if it was not true.”

“Ok, so what do I need to do?”

“First, I need you to be aware of a few things. We are now in a very turbulent age in the history of the universe. Some of the turbulence is because of your actions, or Mr. Queen’s, while some of it is not. There are….advantages to all of us, especially you, having physical forms. That is why you are Felicity Smoak and Death at the same time. This is why you live as both, and why Mr. Queen was…granted an exception.” Fate didn’t mention a few details, such as what normally happened when someone became Death. Felicity didn’t need to know and answering questions about what that would’ve entailed would only make this conversation more awkward than it needed to be. Death needed a physical form now and for reasons she wouldn’t understand yet, Felicity being Death made sense. “As for how your tenure come to an end, I must warn you it will not be easy. It sounds cliché, but you need to forgive yourself for Havenrock.”

“But I-.”

“I know, you are about to say that you do forgive yourself or that what happened is not entirely your fault. Saying you forgive yourself is one thing. Truly forgiving yourself and accepting it is another matter entirely. And it will be sometime before that happens because some of the consequences of that night have yet to happen and every time you feel a ripple effect, you will think about Havenrock and begin to reevaluate what happened and what you did.”

“So, its not about a certain length of time or a certain number of deaths.” Oliver said.

“No, it is not. If there was a time limit, one could simply wait it out. If it was about quantity, then some of the weight behind Death’s purpose is lost. Rather than seeing the dead as individuals who are scared and who’s passing should be respected, they become just another number or one in a sea of thousands. I am sure Felicity told you that her compassion is part of why she became Death. Reaping for the sake of filling a quota is rather heartless, would you not agree?”

“It all circles back to Darhk and Havenrock.” She muttered.

“No, it all ‘circles back’ as you say to you understanding your role in what happened and exactly why it had to happen. And why your actions do not make you a monster.” Fate corrected. “I told you it would not be easy or quick. We chose not to tell you earlier because forgiveness is a journey and you were not ready to start yet.”

“Thank you, for telling me the truth.” She said after it was silent for a few moments.

“You are welcome. That is all I needed to tell you and I believe it would be best if I left now.” Fate said before vanishing.

“So, that’s what I need to do for both of us to die.” Felicity said. “Not as bad as I was expecting.”

“You were expecting worse?” Oliver asked in confusion.

“Yes, because this is something I have control over. How long or how short of a time period this takes is up to me. I’m not sentenced to 10,000 years regardless of how I view what happened. And I’m not bound by a certain number of people who have to die. He could’ve said it’ll be a million years, or he could’ve said I had to reap 10 million people, but that’s not the goal.”

“Redemption isn’t easy, especially self-redemption.” He told her. He didn’t want to discourage her, but he also didn’t want her to think this was going to be easier than it really was. “Take it from someone who knows from experience.” He felt like he was still trying to redeem himself for his behavior during his five years away.

“I know that. As the great Faith Lehane once said ‘road to redemption is a rocky path’.”

“I’ve never heard of her.”

“Really? You’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” Felicity asked. “Anyway, I’m working on it, you’re working on it. I think we just might make it.”

“I think we will too.” He said. “Can we not talk about personal growth we haven’t accomplished yet for a little bit?”

“Sure. What do you wanna talk about?”

“You keeping secrets from me.”

“I tell you everything I can, everything I’m allowed to.” She defended.

“Yes, but when you can’t tell me something, you don’t tell me that you can’t tell me. You just don’t say anything. I know you can’t tell me everything, I saw what happened when you tried, but I don’t like being kept completely in the dark or out of the loop. If you can’t answer because fate reasons, can you just tell me that?”

It didn’t escape Felicity that the thing Oliver was complaining about was the same thing she’d cited as one of the reasons they broke up. He lied by omission or by deflection about William. She’d done the same about Chase and other things since becoming Death. Hearing it stated outright, she felt like a huge hypocrite.

“Yes. I should’ve been doing that since you found out who I really was. It’s- I guess I didn’t want to ruin the image you had of me as just ‘Felicity Smoak’ by telling you about the things I know as Death.” She told him. “That’s not an excuse but-“

“No, I get it.” He said. “Now, about Barry and Iris, what can you tell me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> Due to boring, real life stuff, there won't be a chapter next week.


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver discuss the future and saving Iris might cost Team Flash a price they aren't willing to pay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you might not like Barry after this chapter.

“It’s- I guess I didn’t want to ruin the image you had of me as just ‘Felicity Smoak’ by telling you about the things I know as Death.” She told Oliver. “That’s not an excuse but-“

“No, I get it.” He said. “Now, about Barry and Iris, what can you tell me?”

“Well, Barry’s big idea, now that Death turned him down, is to create a machine that will send Savitar into the Speed Force where he can’t escape. It will both work and not work.” She answered, which caused Oliver to give her a confused look. “Savitar’s existence complicated, just like everything else in Barry’s life. Time doesn’t move the same way for him.”

“I still have no idea what that means.” Oliver admitted.

“It’s- it’s kind of a paradox. Like Sara and Nyssa meeting. Nyssa went to Lian Yu in 2009 to find Sara on the orders of Ra’s. Ra’s sent Nyssa to Lian Yu in 2009 because in 1953, the 2016-version of Sara told Ra’s to send Nyssa there in 2009. Nyssa saving Sara leads to Sara going to 1953 which leads to Nyssa saving Sara in the first place and so on. It’s a time loop.”

“So, stopping Savitar causes Barry to what, create him?”

“I can’t really answer that question for fate reasons.” Felicity said. “What I can tell you is that Barry’s gonna ask for your help and you need to say yes. He’s gonna come to us in a few days and you’re gonna understand why I’m telling you that its imperative that we go along with his plan. No matter how much it’s gonna make you angry.”

“Why will it make me angry?”

“His machine needs a power source. The conclusion he comes to isn’t pretty.” She answered.

Right about now, Cisco would be explaining to Barry what type of power source they’d need and where the only option they had was. In a timeline where Felicity wasn’t so quick to get the Dominators to leave Earth, a Dominator ship would’ve been left behind in Central City and Barry could’ve gotten a suitable power source from ARGUS. That timeline wasn’t the one everyone was currently living in, so a less obvious choice was needed. She was just happy that being Death meant she couldn’t suffer from any physical injuries.

“So, he’s gonna ask for our help. I’m not gonna like what he asks, but I agree. We help him. He stops Savitar and Iris doesn’t die.”

“Iris was never going to die, but he doesn’t find that out until after he seems to see it.” She said. “The ‘Iris’ he sees get killed isn’t his Iris, or any Iris actually. We live in weird world. It’s possible to make one person look like someone else.”

“Who does die then?” Oliver asked her.

“I can’t tell you anything more than that.”

* * *

 

**Central City**

Cisco handed Barry the blueprints of a device that could generate enough energy to open a portal into the Speed Force. Since Savitar was a speedster, the engineer reasoned that he could get trapped in the Speed Force just like any other. The only problem was that it was difficult to generate that much energy without a speedster willing to run into the Speed Force. Meaning Barry or Wally couldn’t open the portal without getting trapped with Savitar.

“This seems pretty straightforward and easy.” Barry said.

“it’s not. Building the Speed Force Bazooka isn’t the problem. The problem is the power.” Cisco explained.

“What do you mean?”

“H.R. and I ran the numbers. Multiple times. As far as we know, there’s only one power source on Earth capable of harnessing enough energy to run the bazooka for long enough to trap Savitar.” Cisco said.

“Ok, what is it?”

Cisco didn’t answer right away. “Maybe we should go with a less direct way to fight Savitar. He’s told you a bunch of times that ‘this is always gonna happen’, Death told you that, it always happens in this timeline, on this Earth. Maybe you and Iris should take a vacation. Visit Kara for a month or so. We’ll run out the clock and find a better option.”

“I’m not running away.” Barry said with conviction. “The power source, was is it?”

“The battery powering the chip in Felicity’s spine. Curtis built it to last another sixty years. One jolt all at once gives us enough juice to- that’s the answer.”

“So, we need to ask Felicity to give up her legs for a few days.”

“That’s just it. The bazooka will drain the battery and it’ll be useless afterwards. And Felicity has the only one in existence.” Cisco said sadly. “Saving Iris means crippling Felicity. Again.”

“Curtis built it once, he can make another one, can’t he?” Barry asked. “He can make one for us, right? Right?”

“We don’t know that. Curtis has tried to recreate it. He hasn’t been successful so far. And, if what everyone’s told you is right, and what you saw is right, we don’t have time for him to work out the kinks. Felicity’s chip is the only one that we know works.” Cisco said. “I still say you should try and run out the clock.”

Barry sat there for several moments contemplating. He was starting to realize that saving Iris might come at a cost he wasn’t willing to pay. He wanted to save Iris, he needed to save her. He didn’t want to disable Felicity though. He couldn’t just let Iris die, but he also couldn’t just ask Felicity to give up her mobility with no surefire way to restore it afterwards. How was he supposed to even broach this subject? What was he supposed to say when it got brought up, if it got brought up? ‘Felicity, I know walking is important to you, but Iris is more important to me’? What was he supposed to do here?

While he was sitting in Star Labs, lost in thought, someone left him a voicemail.

“Hey, Barry. Oliver told me what was going on, what’s gonna happen to Iris. If there’s anything I can do to help, just- anyway I can help, let me know, okay?” Felicity said in her message.

Barry heard the message and came to a decision. He could ask, he had to at least ask. There was tech at Star Labs. There had to be something on the Waverider that could fix Felicity’s spine. There were plenty of ways to help Felicity. Iris wasn’t so lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry asks Felicity for a favor and she draws a line in the sand.

“Hey, Barry. Oliver told me what was going on, what’s gonna happen to Iris. If there’s anything I can do to help, just- anyway I can help, let me know, okay?” Felicity said in her voicemail to Barry.

Barry heard the message and came to a decision. He could ask, he had to at least ask. There was tech at Star Labs. There had to be something on the Waverider that could fix Felicity’s spine. There were plenty of ways to help Felicity. Iris wasn’t so lucky.

Barry stood up from his seat and sped out of the room. He needed to go to Star City and talk to Felicity about saving Iris before he changed his mind.

 

Since Felicity told Oliver he needed to help Barry, even though he wouldn’t like what the speedster was going to ask, the archer tried to figure out what her vague comments meant. She told Oliver he wouldn’t like the conclusion Barry came to about powering his device, but there was a lot of grey area there. Was Barry going to have to time travel again? Did he need to use Oliver, or someone else, as a human battery to power the machine to save Iris? Did it mean someone had to die to save her? He could think of literally dozens of favors Barry could ask for that would piss him off.

“What’s got you all broody over there?” Felicity asked him.

“Thinking about what you said, about how Barry’s gonna ask for something I’m not gonna like. I’ve got no clue what that means.”

“Yeah, you’re not supposed to. If you already know, you have time to think of another way and try to stop it. One of the things I love about you is how you always try to find another way. There might actually be one, but finding another way isn’t the point this time.” She told him. “He’s gonna be here soon, but I want you to remember something.”

“What’s that?”

“We’re gonna be okay. I’m gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay. And that’s the thing that matters to me.” She said, kissing him deeply. They made out for several minutes until there was a knock at the door.

Oliver sighed and stood up to open it. “Barry, what are you doing here?”

“I need a favor, a huge favor. Not from you, from Felicity.”

The archer froze. All this time, he thought he was going to be the one who had to sacrifice something to help Iris. The thought that Felicity might get hurt hadn’t occurred to him. “Felicity?”

“Hey, Barry.” the blonde said, walking over to the door. “Come in, come in. Is everything okay? Did you figure out how to help Iris?”

“Possibly, that’s why I’m here.” He said nervously. “So, Cisco invented this device. He’s calling it the Speed Force Bazooka. It opens a portal into the Speed Force, where our plan is to trap Savitar so that he can’t escape and kill Iris.”

“Ok, sounds good so far.”

“Making it isn’t the problem. Powering it is.” He continued.

“Oh, so you want me to help brainstorm a way to generate enough power to run the machine? I’m in.” Felicity said.

“We figured out that part out too.”

“Ok, what is it?”

“And why do you need Felicity’s help?” Oliver asked.

Barry gulped nervously and looked between the couple for a long stretch of silence. “The chip in your spine, the one that helps you walk. We need it.” Felicity sat in silence, pretending to process what he’d said. “The battery inside of it is the only one of its kind, it has enough juice to power Cisco’s machine.”

Oliver moved forward to attack Barry, but Felicity’s hand stopped him. “That chip is the only thing keeping me out of a wheelchair.”

“I know.”

“So, you realize removing it will cripple her?” Oliver said angrily.

“I know, and I’m sorry, but I have to save Iris.”

“So, just to be clear. You’re asking Felicity to give up her legs. You’re asking me to put Iris ahead of the woman I love most in the entire world?” He yelled. “Wasn’t this all caused by your actions? You changing the timeline?”

“It was but-.”

“So because you couldn’t leave well enough alone, Felicity has to give up her mobility.”

“I didn’t- I wanted my parents to still-.”

“You’re not the only person who’s lost people, Barry.”

“I’m not saying- this is Iris’s one chance. There are other ways to help Felicity.”

“Are you sure about that? Because last year, there was nothing you could do.” Oliver responded.

“There has to be something on the Waverider that can-.”

“Is there? Can you guarantee it? Because-.”

“Would either of you like to hear what I have to say?” Felicity said, cutting them off. “I mean, it’s my spine after all.” They both stopped and looked at her. “I’ll do it.”

Barry let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Felicity, I-.”

“I’m not done. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for Iris. You screwed up, and I don’t think its fair for her to die because of it.” She said in a serious tone. “But we’re done.”

“What?”

“We’re finished, Barry. You don’t ask me for favors after this. You don’t come to either of us for help. I give you the chip, we save Iris, and then I never wanna see your face again.” She said. “I never wanna hear your name. I want to forget that you exist.”

“Felicity, I-.”

“Flashpoint got people killed. It erased people from existence. And now, because of Flashpoint, because of you, I have to give up the only thing that helped me walk after three bullets ripped through my spine.” She said standing up. “I’m gonna storm off, while I still can.”

“Leave. Now.” Oliver said when Felicity walked away. if he had to look at the speedster for another second, he was going to kill him. Barry, wisely, sped off. With Barry gone, Oliver followed Felicity upstairs. He found her crying in their bedroom. “I thought you knew this was gonna happen.”

“I knew he’d come to the conclusion eventually. I didn’t think he’d do it so soon. Cisco told him about the energy needs a little over an hour ago.” She answered. “You know, I hoped as stupid as it is, that maybe he wouldn’t be this selfish. I was wrong. It’s a good thing I can’t get injured, right?”

“Wait, so even though you had the chip before you became Death, you’ll still be able to walk?”

“Yeah, one of the perks of the job I guess.” She told him. “I’m standing by my ultimatum to Barry though. We’re done after this. He doesn’t know that I’m Death, which means as far as he knows, he just asked me to become disabled again to fix a mess he created.”

“I feel like things might be a little less weird without him in our lives.” Oliver responded. “Is it bad that I wanna kill him for this?”

“Not at all. I kinda do too, but it’s not his time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? 
> 
> So, Barry's kinda the worst...


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver talk about what happens next and get a visitor.

After Barry left, and Felicity explained to Oliver that she’d be perfectly fine without the implantable biostimulant, the couple fell into silence. They weren’t really sure what to do next. The surgery to remove her implant didn’t need to happen now, and they were both too angry to ask Barry for any more information.

“How are we gonna explain this to the team?” Oliver eventually asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they’re gonna find out you removed the chip, which means they’re gonna wanna know how you’re able to walk without it, and since you wanna keep the fact that you’re Death under wraps, I’m wondering what your plan is. I mean, pretending to be disabled is wrong. On many levels.”

“I’m not going to. The team isn’t gonna know it’s being removed. And they aren’t gonna be there when the Savitar fight happens, or even be aware that it’s happening. As far as they’ll know, it’ll still be in my back and functioning at 100%.” She said. “You’re meant to help defeat Savitar. As much as I love John and Thea, they aren’t.”

“It’s that easy?”

“In this case, yes. And as for Team Flash, because despite my ultimatum Barry will come running to us for help, I’ll just say that I found a way to heal myself on my own.” She said.

“Well, you probably could. No offense to Curtis, but you definitely would’ve found a way, he just created one faster.” Oliver told her. He loved Felicity and had no doubt in his mind that given a little more time, she could’ve created a chip similar to, if not better than, Curtis’s. “Because you’re the smartest person I know.”

“Oliver Queen, are you trying to butter me up?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

“Definitely.” She said before she leaned over and started kissing him. Kissing led to touching which led to them both getting naked and having sex.

After their sex was over, and they were lying on the bed with Oliver running one hand up and down her spine, he shared a thought that had been on his mind for a while.

“You know, it’s kinda lucky that Death doesn’t want people to die. You know in movies, they usually make it seem like Death’s trying to kill as many people as possible. But you, you don’t want anyone to die.”

“Well, here’s the thing. Those movies always involve some kind of face-off against Death. You’re either trying to escape them or you challenge Death to a game to win more time. And in some movies, Death’s a straight-up bad guy who ‘wins’ if they kill you.” She said. “My cosmic purpose doesn’t begin and end with ‘boop, you’re dead’.”

“Boop?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah, like this.” She said, reaching one finger out and poking him softly on the nose. “Boop. Although I think in most movies, they aren’t depicting me, they’re depicting what they think reapers are like, which is kinda rude. Most reapers are very nice.”

“Most? Not all?”

“No, not all. One day, someone’s gonna have to reap Charles Manson. Someone had to reap Hitler and Saddam Hussein and Ted Bundy and a number of other horrible people. They don’t exactly deserve the ‘you can rest now, just let go and find peace’ spiel that most people do. Instead, they get a reaper who’s terrifying and says in a creepy demon voice ‘I’m here to personally drag you to Hell’. Those are the only reapers who aren’t nice.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“Also, those movies where Death’s trying to kill everyone? Death’s an idiot. You want the population to grow, because the more people who are born, the more people will eventually die. You’ve got eternity, why rush?”

Oliver’s hand stopped rubbing her back and he thought about what she just said. “That’s… a little messed up when you think about it. Wanting people to live so that eventually more people will die.”

“Yeah, I guess it kinda is. Or maybe I just said it wrong.” She shrugged. “Despite getting the hang of this whole Death thing, I’m still not great with words.”

Oliver and Felicity fell asleep in each other’s arms and woke up the following morning with a new, better attitude. As bad as it sounded, it seemed like getting Barry out of their lives would make things easier. Or perhaps it just seemed like the speedster was just causing a lot of problems for them lately.

Oliver was in the middle of making Felicity an omelet when there was a knock at the door. “I swear to god, if it’s Barry asking for the details on getting your chip, I just might kill him with that scythe of yours.”

“It’s not. And even though you can see the scythe, you can’t make physical contact with it. Them’s the rules.” She said, standing up to answer the door. “Hey, what brings you by?”

“John and I were wondering if you’re okay.” Thea said.

“Sorry, come in.” She said, stepping out of the way. “Why wouldn’t we be okay?”

“Well, Prometheus is dead. He died here, in front of you if what Lyla told John is right. He was evil but that’s just a little traumatic. And we haven’t seen either of you since the night he died.” she explained. “Not even a phone call.”

“Sorry, Speedy, it- things got kinda outta hand.” Oliver said.

“How?”

“Well, he made some…comments that made me think he might’ve found William and Samantha. I had to make sure they were okay, and then Barry came to me with a problem and-.” He explained. “I should’ve let you know we were okay. I’m sorry. Want an omelet?” He held up the plate.

“Sure.” She said, taking it. “How are you feeling, by the way? Any lingering effects from the shooting or the six times Prometheus tried to kill you?”

“Nope. Doctor says I’m completely healthy. Probably the healthiest I’ve ever been.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver realizes Felicity can see dead people, which leads him to wonder something. They decide to test a theory.

“How are you feeling, by the way? Any lingering effects from the shooting or the six times Prometheus tried to kill you?” Thea asked Oliver.

“Nope. Doctor says I’m completely healthy. Probably the healthiest I’ve ever been.”

“Really?”

“Yup. It’s kinda a miracle.” Felicity cut in. Everything they were saying was true, but she also knew that it was lying by omission and Oliver hated lying to Thea. “I mean, I’m not saying Oliver was on Death’s door but- I cant believe he’s so healthy after going through so much.”

“Well, it certainly helps that he had extra incentive to heal so quickly.” Thea said, taking a sip of coffee. “I don’t wanna make it a big deal, but I take it this scene means I was right. You two are back together.”

“Yeah.”

“Sweet. John and Sara owe me ten bucks.”

“You bet on us getting back together?” Oliver asked.

“We didn’t bet. It was more like a pool about when you’d get back together rather than if.” She answered. “But most importantly, I won.”

Thea stayed at the loft for another hour talking to Oliver and Felicity before leaving. After she left, the couple wasn’t quite sure what to do. It was a Saturday, so he didn’t have work. Additionally, city council was on a two-week recess, so he didn’t have any proposals or reports he absolutely needed to take care of.

“So, what do you wanna do today?” Felicity asked him when the breakfast dishes were all washed and dried. “Because I don’t have anything planned. Didn’t really think beyond ‘stop Prometheus’ and ‘agree to help Barry and then tell him to go shove it’.”

“Really? You don’t have….work? Because I think you’re one of the few beings in existence that’s on the clock 24-7.” He said.

“Nah. Yes, people die at all hours but there are also plenty of reapers to handle that. Which kinda means I’m basically their manager. But one that rarely actually comes to work. Oh Google, I’m the aloof CEO of Death Incorporated.” She said in realization.

“I’m sure the reapers don’t have a problem with that. Would you wanna be micromanaged when you reap someone?” He offered. “I know you don’t have to reap people, you just have to exist for death to be a thing, but is there anything you actually have to do?”

“Well, unless someone really messes up the timeline or Natural Order again, no. When I was first starting out at this and I met Order, she’s actually pretty nice and not as frustrating as Fate, she joked that we only deal with ‘the big stuff’. Like making sure the universe keeps spinning and all that.” She answered. “One thing that I can do, and I actually like doing, is talking to the dead who are at peace.”

The comment threw Oliver for a loop. “What? I thought once someone died, you reaped them and their soul went into the afterlife.”

“Oh, they do, but the dead can….I guess visit is kinda the right word. They can’t interact with our world, the living can’t see them, but they can see the living. Mediums and seances are a load of crap though.”

“So, the dead just watch the living?”

“Not all the time, and not everywhere.” Felicity said. “Most of the dead can only manifest where they died or where they’re buried. It’s why I can only see Laurel or Tommy in Starling Cemetery.”

“Do you- you can see them and I’m…not Death or a reaper but I’m adjacent to that stuff. Do you think I could see them?” Oliver asked. He felt bad for asking, but he would give almost anything to see Tommy one more time and apologize for not saving him.

“I don’t know to be completely honest. No living person ever has, but then again, no living person has ever been Death’s soulmate before.” She answered. “We can give it a shot, if you want. If you can see them, fantastic. If not, I’ll figure out a way so you can.”

“What does that mean?”

“I know a few ways. I could possibly pull you into the In-Between and you can see them there. Since you can’t die as long as I’m Death, there’s no harm in you spending however long you need.” She said. “It’s not my first or second choice, but it’s a viable one.”

The In-Between was an important plane of existence and sort of sacred for the role it played in the cycle of life and death. It was the gateway between the world of the living and the afterlife. Using it as a meeting place didn’t quite sit right with Felicity, which is why she wanted to try every other option before that.

“How about we just go to the cemetery before we do any astral projecting?” He suggested. “I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves.”

Oliver and Felicity got ready for the day and headed to Starling Cemetery. They were both hoping what happened next would go well, even if they couldn’t quite say what ‘going well’ meant.

* * *

 

**Central City**

Barry just finished explaining The Plan to Team Flash. He stopped talking and waited for the others to react to the information he’d just given them.

“I’m sorry. I think I heard you wrong.” Cisco spoke up. “You went to Star City and asked Oliver and Felicity for the chip in her spine?”

“Yes.”

“And they just said yes?” Caitlin asked. Oliver and Felicity were giving by nature, as any hero was, but them agreeing to what Barry had asked went beyond being selfless. It went beyond self-sacrificing. She doubted things would’ve been the same if the situations were reversed.

“Yes.”

“Why would they, why would Felicity agree to do that?” Iris asked. “She didn’t have anything to do with this, I don’t wanna die, but this was your mess. Why does she have to clean it up?”

“She’s not doing it for me. She told me that much. She said she was agreeing because she thinks you don’t deserve to die.” He admitted. “Then, we’re done.”

“What?”

“After we save you from Savitar, they’ve both made it very clear that they never wanna see me again. They wanna forget I even exist.” He explained.

“Can’t say I blame them for that.” Cisco remarked, which earned him a glare from Barry and Iris. “What?”

* * *

 

**Star City**

Oliver and Felicity got out of the car and walked towards the cemetery, holding hands. “Hey Felicity?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think you’re gonna need to send me into the In-Between.” He told her.

“You can see them?”

“Well, not Tommy and Laurel, but I do see a woman over there.” He gestured to a spot near one of the graves. There was a woman with shoulder length brown hair where he pointed wearing a dark blue dress. No one else seemed to notice her.

“Her name’s Miranda. She was killed in a car accident six years ago.” Felicity explained. Her hand tightened around his. “Let’s go find Tommy and Laurel.”

They walked between the rows of headstones. There were fewer dead people wandering around than Oliver expected. They moved closer to where Tommy’s headstone was. He could see a man standing there, leaning against the stone.

“I was wondering when you were gonna visit.” Tommy said with a smirk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> How is Oliver and Tommy's conversation gonna go?


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver talks with an old friend

Oliver and Felicity walked between the rows of headstones. There were fewer dead people wandering around than Oliver expected. They moved closer to where Tommy’s headstone was. He could see a man standing there, leaning against the stone.

“I was wondering when you were gonna visit.” Tommy said with a smirk.

“Tommy…” Oliver said in awe.

“What’s with the face? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He said before he couldn’t keep a straight face anymore. “I’m sorry, that joke wasn’t exactly in good taste.”

Oliver was still staring. Felicity then spoke up. “It’s a lot to take in, understandably. I thought I was losing my marbles when Laurel asked me to look after her dad. Give him a minute.”

“Well, you’re the boss.” He said. “I always forget to ask, but do you have any cool powers?”

“You mean other than seeing dead people, knowing when someone’s gonna die and more or less being able to change reality? No, not really.”

“So you can’t, like, touch someone and kill them. Or slowly drain them of their life force.”

“No, sweetie. You’re thinking of Rogue from the X-Men.” She answered.

Oliver’s brain seemed to catch up with what he was seeing and he snapped out of his stupor. “Sorry. it’s good to see you, I missed you, it’s just-.”

“You didn’t think you’d ever get a chance to talk to me again unless you died, and even then, you doubted you wouldn’t be sent…down below.” Tommy finished for him.

“Pretty much.” He said. “I- I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“For what? Really? I- you weren’t supposed to die. It was supposed to me. And even if it wasn’t destined to be me, I was supposed to at least save you. I couldn’t stop what happened and I couldn’t save my best friend.”

“First of all, it wasn’t your job to save me. I’m sure Felicity’s explained that you can’t stop, or trick, her. Maybe it didn’t have to be under a pile of rubble, maybe it was gonna be a car crash or one of my dad’s angry victims, but still. When your number’s called, that’s it. It was my time.” He said. “And second, you weren’t meant to. You might not have seen me, but I’ve been keeping an eye on you, and I’m not the only one. Think about who you were back then, compared to now. Sometimes you gotta fail to succeed.”

“That’s the way you see it? Your death was part of my growth as a person?”

“It was though, you stopped killing because of it. And if you’d died back then, who knows what would’ve happened to Thea or your family. You wouldn’t have found Sara again. You and Felicity wouldn’t have…you know.” He raised an eyebrow mischieviously. “I think your relationship alone almost makes my death worth it.”

“Tommy.” Oliver said in a serious tone.

“Oh, the growly Green Arrow voice. I’ve never experienced that before.” He teased. “But really, I’m glad you mourned me. I’m glad you missed me, but don’t think I’m sitting here in the afterlife angry that I died. I got to see my mom again.”

Oliver then realized something else his friend had said. “Who else has been watching me? You said you weren’t the only one.”

“Who do you think? Your parents, obviously. Shado and Yao Fei from time to time. Sara during her brief stay here. There are others, but I think I’ve proven my point.” He answered. “Now, can we stop with the doom and gloom stuff. Death’s not that bad. She’s not really my type but-.”

“Tommy.” Felicity said in a fake-stern voice.

“What? The cute nerd girl look works for you.” He defended. “Remember that time you learned to hotwire my dad’s car?”

“Yeah, I got grounded for the whole summer.”

“Because you did it three more times.”

Oliver and Felicity sat next to each other on the grass and talked with Tommy for a while. Visitors came and went, paying little attention to them. The good thing about cemeteries was that no one found it odd if they saw someone talking to a grave stone. The sun started to go down and Oliver reluctantly said they needed to leave. He told Tommy they’d come back another day and helped Felicity up off the ground.

“I hope I didn’t just make things worse for you.” Felicity said when they got in the car.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a little worried, to be honest, that helping you see him might take a toll on you.”

“In what way?”

“You saw him, you got to apologize and express everything you never got to tell him. How many people have you lost? I’m worried that doing this too often will start to take over your life.” She explained. “I know seeing him was important, how could it not be, but I just….please don’t let this change things.”

“It won’t. Will I visit sometimes? Yes. But it’s not gonna turn into that thing in Harry Potter with the magic mirror.” He promised her.

“It’s called the Mirror of Erised. The magic mirror is from Snow White.” She pointed out.

“The point is, I’m not gonna become addicted or obsessed with it.”

“Good. Let’s go home. I’m hungry and someone promised me chicken cordon bleu.”

‘I’m gonna need to talk to this ‘someone’. No one is allowed to make chicken cordon bleu for you except me. That’s my thing.” He responded playfully.

“You’re so weird.” She said in between laughs.

They had dinner before going to the foundry for the first time in days. Oliver went to patrol with John and Thea. When they were done, Oliver and Felicity went home. Even though it was rather late, or early depending on how you looked at it, they stayed up for a while. They kept busy for a few more hours before they finally went to sleep. The next morning, Felicity woke up and got out of bed. She stretched as she yawned and looked down.

“Well, that’s new.”

“Huh?” Oliver asked sleepily from next to her.

“Go back to sleep, I’ll tell you later.” She told him, even though she had no idea how to explain it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity gets some surprising news and shares it with Oliver.

Felicity woke up and got out of bed. She stretched as she yawned and looked down.

“Well, that’s new.”

“Huh?” Oliver asked sleepily from next to her.

“Go back to sleep, I’ll tell you later.” She told him, even though she had no idea how to explain it. While she tried to figure out how to tell Oliver, she went downstairs to grab some food. She wasn’t even completely sure that she’d seen what she thought she’d seen. Then again, after the last year, she supposed anything was possible.

Felicity had just poured the milk on her Cocoa Puffs when Fate appeared in front of her.

“What the frack?!” She yelled, almost dropping the bowl. “Don’t do that!”

“You didn’t sense me coming?”

“No, I was focused on something else.” She answered. “Why are you here?”

“I think you already know.” He said, pointedly. “It’s about what you woke up to this morning.”

“So I wasn’t just imagining things.”

“No. It’s true. What you saw, what you see, is reality.”

“Ok, but how though? How is that even possible?”

“You have no idea what is and isn’t possible.” Fate countered. “Not anymore at least.”

“Yes, but I’m Death.”

“I know.”

“As in, the Grim Reaper, the Pale Horsemen. The embodiment of death and decay. I make things die. The two things no one can avoid are taxes and me. I’m not completely alive because I can’t die.”

“I know that.”

“So you understand why I’m a little confused then.” She said. “I’m Death and I’m pregnant.” When Felicity had woken up earlier, she looked down and saw numbers hovering next to her stomach. Except instead of the clock counting down, the numbers kept fluctuating. The only time she’d seen that was when she walked past a woman that was seven months pregnant. A person’s timer only started to count down after they were born.

“The universe works in mysterious ways.”

“Don’t give me that crap. I’m one of the things that makes it work.” She exclaimed. “How the hell am I pregnant?”

“I really would prefer not to explain human reproduction to you.” Fate said bluntly. “I was under the impression you already knew how babies are made.”

“Babies, yes. I just don’t know how its possible for Death to get pregnant.”

“You’re pregnant?” Oliver asked from behind her. She turned to face him, and Fate used the distraction to vanish before she could ask him anything else.

“How much did you hear?”

“I heard you say that you were pregnant. Twice.” He answered. “And its- you are? This isn’t some weird Game of Thrones situation?”

“Did you really just ask if I was carrying a demon shadow baby?” She asked.

“After the last year, it’s a valid question.” He defended. “And you’re trying to distract me so I won’t notice that you haven’t answered my question.”

“Yes, I’m pregnant. I have no idea how its possible between my Death-ness and what the shooting did to my body, but I’m- we’re having a baby.”

It was silent in the loft for several moments before Oliver spoke again. “I know you told me I don’t wanna know the answer, but I need to ask. How long?”

“What?”

“You know how long everyone has until they die. Reason would suggest that it’s the same for the baby. We don’t know how long we’ll- I need to- please just tell me.”

“I can’t.” She said. “And this isn’t a ‘I don’t want to’ situation, or a ‘I can’t because destiny’ one. I seriously don’t know. Clock doesn’t start until after someone’s born.”

“How do you know you’re pregnant then?” He asked curiously. He assumed she knew because she saw a clock near her stomach.

“Life and death are connected. I sense death, and I can also sense life. I know I’m pregnant because I feel it.” She admitted. “It’s difficult to explain.” She took a deep breath. “I can’t really tell how you feel about this though. Happy? Sad? Can you give me an indication?”

Instead of answering, he walked over to her and kissed her as fiercely as he could. They stayed like that, lip-locked, for several minutes. Finally, he needed to breathe and pulled away. “Was that response clear enough?”

“Definitely.” She smiled. “I need to visit Dr. Schwartz in a few weeks.”

“She’s not an OBGYN.” He pointed out.

“I know, but she’s a doctor, which means she can confirm I’m pregnant with a blood test. Which we need because I’ll sound like a crazy person if I start saying I knew I was pregnant hours after I became pregnant because I could life growing inside of me.”

“Speaking of doctors, what do we do about Barry’s situation? It’ll take time to get a surgery scheduled to remove the chip and no doctor will perform that surgery if you’re pregnant.” A part of Oliver really hoped this new development meant that they didn’t have to help Barry because they couldn’t remove Felicity’s implant in her current condition.

“I’m not having surgery.” She clarified. “I don’t need to. I just need to call up another entity and it’ll be out in seconds. But I don’t feel like giving it to Barry just yet. I want to make him wait, and think about what he’s done. And for his friends to all, rightfully, point out how fucked up this situation, which he created, is.”

 

The following week, Felicity got in touch with Order, who helped her remove the implant from her spine. As expected, she didn’t feel any differently when it was removed. The next day, Felicity and Oliver took a train to Central City to visit Star Labs. They entered the building and found Team Flash in the Cortex. Wordlessly, Felicity handed Barry a clear plastic bag with the implant inside of it. He asked her why she’d given it to him so soon.

“I wanted to get it over with. I didn’t wanna wait around for you to come bugging me for it.” She said, with a lot of hostility, before wheeling herself away. “Have a nice life.” Oliver threw him a dirty look before following after her.

“They hate me.” Barry said sadly.

“They have every right to.” Cisco said before heading to his workshop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	43. Chapter 43

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, and by extension Oliver, face off against Savitar.

Oliver and Felicity left Star Labs after giving Barry the implant. Instead of heading back to the train station, however, Felicity directed him to a hotel a few blocks away from the building.

“I thought we were leaving.”

“Not yet. Barry doesn’t know the exact date ‘Iris’ dies, just that it was a few months in the future from the day he ran forward in time. The day he traveled to was today. Cisco’s building the machine they need as we speak. Savitar’s gonna attack tonight which means you need to be here to help stop him. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do that much. Just fire a few arrows at Savitar to distract him. And boom, situation over.”

“Who is Savitar anyway?” Oliver asked. “Why does he wanna kill Iris so badly?”

“Complicated speedster, time-travel related reasons. It’s actually a really stupid reason and knowing won’t make you like the situation anymore.” She answered. “Barry did a stupid thing, it caused this Savitar situation to happen and now we’re having to deal with it.”

Oliver let the subject drop, knowing that they’d both only get more upset and angry the longer they discussed it. They didn’t have a logical explanation for Barry’s behavior, which in turn only made them both more frustrated at the situation and how easily this could’ve been avoided.

Felicity and Oliver stayed in their hotel room watching TV for a few hours. She told him she’d let him know when he needed to leave to help Barry, even though neither of them really wanted to. Oliver tried, weakly, to convince her that they should just leave and make Barry deal with it, but she wouldn’t budge.

“Fire one arrow and we can be done with this city once and for all.” She told him. “And go home and fight about baby names and what to have for dinner and whether we’re gonna have a girl or a boy.”

“That’s not fair, you already know.”

“No, I just have an inkling.” She teased.

A little after 9:30 at night, Felicity turned to Oliver and told him it was time. He suited up, snuck out of the building and she directed him to the exact location. He arrived just as Savitar stabbed some futuristic-looking blade through Joe’s chest. Joe gasped and fell to the ground, dead. The speedster then moved on to Iris, stabbing her in the same way before Barry could stop him.

“Now.” Felicity told Oliver.

The archer nocked an arrow and fired it at Savitar. He spun around and caught it in midair. Using the temporary distraction, Barry and Cisco fired up Cisco’s Speed Force bazooka and shot it at Savitar. The evil speedster was sucked into the Speed Force, leaving only the arrow he’d caught behind.

“Oli- you came.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” Oliver said. “Turns out Felicity’s sacrifice wasn’t even for Iris.”

Barry and Cisco turned to see that ‘Iris’ wasn’t really Iris. Instead, HR’s body was lying on the pavement.

“I told you that you couldn’t fight City Hall.” Jessica said from behind them.

“I did though. I saved Iris.” Barry argued. “You said I couldn’t save her, and I did.”

“I never said, and Death never said, Iris was going to die. I said you couldn’t stop what you saw from happening. It still happened. You saw your adopted father die and then someone who looked like Iris die. You’re the one that assumed Iris was the person Savitar stabbed.” She explained. “And if you’d listened to Jay Garrick, no one would’ve died, but we knew you wouldn’t.” She looked at HR and Joe’s bodies. “C’mon boys, time to go.”

“You can’t reap them.” Barry said.

“I’d really like to see you stop me.” She said with an eyeroll before vanishing. Neither Joe or HR were happy to go, but they knew they didn’t really have a choice.

Barry felt like an idiot. He didn’t stop what he’d seen from happening; he just hadn’t understood what he was seeing at the time. He hadn’t been able to change anything. Now, because of him, things were worse. Cisco and Caitlin barely wanted to work with him. Felicity and Oliver hated him and never wanted to see him again. And Joe was dead. Barry had to explain to Iris and Wally that he wasn’t able to change anything and wasn’t able to save Joe.

 

Oliver walked into his hotel with Felicity to find her sitting on the bed with her eyes closed. When he closed the door, he saw her let out a deep breath.

“Mm. Do you know what that is? That smell?” She asked. “It’s the smell of freedom. We’re finally free from dealing with Barry’s problems. Doesn’t it smell great?”

“It does.” Oliver agreed. “Let’s go home.”

“Three of my favorite words.” She said. “We have the room for the night though, let’s get our money’s worth and leave in the morning. We’ll take the express route home.”

“Express route? We took the train.” He said in confusion.

“You do know I can teleport right?” She asked. “I don’t do it all the time, because I don’t wanna be that lazy, but I can just zap us, and all our stuff, home.”

They got into bed and Felicity fell asleep to Oliver whispering quietly to her nonexistent baby bump. She didn’t know what their baby would be like, or even how mortal it would be, but she was excited for the next adventure a baby would bring. The next morning, Oliver got checked out of the hotel and Felicity teleported them back to Starling. No one was expecting them to be back before nightfall, so they had a whole day to themselves.

After unpacking, and Oliver making Felicity eating something somewhat healthy for lunch, they started talking.

“You know what I’ve been thinking about a lot since we found out about the baby?” Oliver said.

“What?”

“William. Dahrk’s dead. Chase and Talia are both dealt with. There isn’t a threat against them anymore. Samantha and William, they could come out of hiding. Go back to their old lives. And, with the new baby, maybe-.” He’d missed most of William’s childhood, he didn’t want to miss any more of it. He hoped somehow, he and Samantha could come to some kind of understanding. 

“Before we talk about this, there’s something I need to tell you.” Felicity said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	44. Chapter 44

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity gives Oliver so bad news and the couple learn that some things have been happening right under their noses.

“You know what I’ve been thinking about a lot since we found out about the baby?” Oliver said.

“What?”

“William. Dahrk’s dead. Chase and Talia are both dealt with. There isn’t a threat against them anymore. Samantha and William, they could come out of hiding. Go back to their old lives. And, with the new baby, maybe-.” He’d missed most of William’s childhood, he didn’t want to miss any more of it. He hoped somehow, he and Samantha could come to some kind of understanding. 

“Before we talk about this, there’s something I need to tell you.” Felicity said.

Oliver froze, put down the plate he was holding and turned so that he was fully facing Felicity. “Is something gonna happen to William? Did something happen to him? Did something happen to Samantha?”

‘No, but something is going to.” Felicity said quietly. “Samantha is….she doesn’t know it, but she’s sick. She’s gonna realize in a few days that something isn’t quite right.”

“Cancer?” He asked.

“No, unfortunately. It’s worse than that.”

“What’s worse than cancer?” Oliver asked.

“Cancer sounds scary, and it is. But we have chemotherapy, in many cases we can remove the tumors and cancerous tissue, we can do organ transplants. There are options.” She said. “But Samantha doesn’t have cancer, she has Huntington’s disease. It’s degenerative disorder that doesn’t have a cure. And you need to know that before you make any decisions about William.”

“Why?”

“She could have a very aggressive type of Huntington’s, where her quality of life and condition decrease rapidly or she could get a less aggressive diagnosis and she’ll slowly get worse. I don’t know which diagnosis she’s gonna get yet, I can’t see that far ahead. If it’s the first diagnosis, there’s going to come a point where she’ll no longer be able to take care of William. There’s going to come a point where he won’t be able to take care of herself. Hard choices might need to be made. William is 10 years old. These aren’t decisions anyone can afford to make lightly.”

“He’s my son. I want to be in his life and if he needs me, I’ll be there for him.” Oliver said.

“I know. I know you’ll step up to the plate if and when you need to, but I also couldn’t just let you reach out to Samantha knowing she’s going to find out she’s ill soon and not say anything.” She told him. “I’m not trying to talk you into anything or out of anything, I’m just telling you that the situation is more complicated than you or she realize.”

Oliver sat quietly for several moments. It was a lot to take in, and a lot he now needed to think about. “Can you please get a message to Samantha? I know you know where she and William are hiding. Tell her the danger’s passed and she can go back to her normal life.”

“I’ll try. I’m not sure she’ll believe it.” She said. “I’m sorry if I seemed to ‘by the book’ about telling you she was sick, its just- that’s kinda the only way I can deal with it. Knowing what I know. It’s one thing to know an old person’s gonna have a heart attack. It’s completely different to think about how a woman in her 30s with a young son is sick and there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean, life isn’t fair and all that, but sometimes I have trouble sleeping at night when I think about people like that.”

“Why do you think we don’t sleep?” Jessica said, popping up behind her. “If we aren’t dwelling on our own deaths, we’re thinking about the people we didn’t want to reap, but had to.”

“Wait, ‘your own death’? You died?” Oliver asked.

“How do you think reapers are made? I was born, I lived, I died.” She answered. “I’d tell you the details, but that’s a story for another time.” Most reapers didn’t talk about their deaths, and Jessica definitely didn’t. “I heard through the grapevine that you’re pregnant. I didn’t believe it until now. Congrats, I guess.”

“That’s kinda a weird thing to say.”

“I’m great with the dead, I’m shit at talking to the living. And I’m worse when it comes babies. I don’t deal with babies, ever. They’re the exact opposite of what I am.” She justified before disappearing.

Her statement made Oliver wonder about stillborns and infants who died very, very young. He realized quickly that he didn’t want to ask, because he’d rather not know. Felicity didn’t offer an explanation either. Maybe the answer to that question was just too horrible to think about.

Felicity started the process of getting a message to Samantha and William that day. She knew she couldn’t just track down a phone number and call them without warning. It would spook the woman way too much and she didn’t want to do that. She wanted to open a line of communication that made the other woman feel safe. She also knew that it was extremely likely that, after Samantha got her test results from her doctor, she’d reach out to Oliver. Only one of her parents was alive and they lived in a different country. Still, Felicity said she’d try and told Oliver she was working on getting in touch with them.

When Oliver and Felicity went to the foundry that night to meet up with Thea and John, they arrived while their two partners were in the middle of the argument.

“We don’t know them. They could be anybody.” Thea said.

“That’s not a very solid argument against what I’m suggested. I’m saying we should think about it.” John retorted.

“What are you two fighting about?” Oliver asked.

“Other vigilantes. A few have popped up in Star City lately. I think we should consider, just consider, reaching out to them.”

“And I think that we shouldn’t. We don’t know them. We’ve got no idea who they are. Or why they’re doing this.”

“What vigilantes are you talking about? I haven’t heard or seen anything about them.” Felicity said. “And I kinda know everything.”

“They haven’t exactly been getting media attention. Until now. I don’t think anyone knew there were people other than us until you two went to Central City and the two of us couldn’t cover the whole city, alone.”  Thea said. “There are at least two that the media and SCPD have acknowledged.”

After talking a little while longer, it was decided the team would keep their distance from the new vigilantes for now, but do some research into who these people were. They’d make a decision after they knew more or could get an impression from these people themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> Regarding Samantha/why she's sick-  
> Killing Samantha off was a very easy way for Arrow to get dad!Oliver without having to spend time making custody of William a major plotline (except for the one episode in s7). I feel like, if she hadn't died, there would've been more drama there because Sam definitely would've had a 'we were fine until you showed up' mentality. I didn't want to just kill her, but I feel like her finding out she's sick would cause her to be a little more open to Oliver being in William's life.


	45. Chapter 45

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver kinda makes a friend, and mulls over the situation with Samantha.

After finding out that there were other vigilantes in Star City, Oliver and Felicity of course tried as hard as they could to figure out who these people were, and more importantly, what kind of vigilantism they’d been engaged in while Oliver hadn’t been looking. He respected Helena, but he didn’t want another student like her.

While they weren’t exactly sure how many active vigilantes there were, a few caught the team’s eye. Evelyn Sharp for one. It didn’t surprise Oliver, or anyone else, that Evelyn hadn’t given up on fighting crime after their run-in with her after Laurel’s death. The team was torn on whether to recruit Evelyn or not. On one hand, she seemed to be dead-set on being a vigilante. On the other, she was only seventeen and they weren’t sure recruiting a minor was a smart idea.

The second potential recruit that they became aware of was being called Wild Dog by the press. His costume seemed to consist of basic body armor and a hockey mask. Felicity was working to uncover who was under the mask, but for the time being, they only had the code name to go by. His actions were what alerted the SCPD, and the press, to the existence of other crime-fighters in Star City. He’d appeared to stop a drug deal only moments before the SCPD arrived to break up the same drug deal. That seemed to be a pattern with him, since he only seemed to show up when drugs or weapons were being sold. The team was less on the fence about him than they were Evelyn though.

“And you don’t know who he is yet?” Oliver asked Felicity after she’d been trying to work out his identity for a week.

“Nope. I’ve got a list, every day I cross a few more names off of it to narrow it down.” She said. Her computer started to make a strange sound, and she stopped her explanation to check it out. “Okay, so I can’t tell you who he is, but I can tell you where he’s gonna be.”

“You can?” Thea asked.

“He targets very specific crimes and criminals. It makes him a little easier to track down than you guys.” She said. “I’m still monitoring all SCPD radio communications. They have credible intel that there’s gonna be a big drug buy tonight about half a mile from here. I get the feeling that’s where he’ll be.”

As Felicity predicted, Wild Dog showed up to the alleged buy that night. Oliver intercepted him as he was making his escape, catching him with an ensnarement arrow.

“Woah, woah. I’m not one of them.” He protested.

“Maybe not, but let’s find out who you actually are.” The Green Arrow replied as he removed the hockey mask. “Overwatch?”

“Facial recognition needs a few more seconds.” She said. “And, bingo. Wild Dog’s name is Rene Ramirez.”

“You shouldn’t be out here, Rene.” The archer said as he cut the man down.

“How do you- look, its my city too!” He responded after he got back to his feet. “You aren’t the only one that cares about it.”

“Your way of helping is gonna get you killed.” Oliver said before turning to leave.

“So, that’s it then?” He shouted.

“Until your leg heals, yes.” The archer said before nocking an arrow and firing it into Rene’s leg. “If you’re still serious when that heals, we’ll talk.”

“You are….really bad at making friends.” Felicity said over the comms as he was leaving.

“I already have two. How many do I need?” He responded sarcastically.

 

The next morning, Felicity was in the kitchen, making herself some toast, when Oliver walked into the room. He looked sad about something. She asked him if everything was okay.

“Samantha got your message.” He said. “She left me a voicemail; she says she wants to talk.”

“You don’t have to, and you shouldn’t, feel guilty, you know.” She said. “You didn’t cause Samantha to get sick. Nothing you did caused this. Nothing I did, or Darhk did or anyone else made this happen. It isn’t anyone’s fault. This is happening to her because of the way her body is. Nothing any of us did could’ve prevented this.”

“I do feel guilty though. Because she’s sick, or going to get sick, and a part of me is happy about it, a very small part, because it means I can get to know my son. What kind of person does that make me?”

“You aren’t a bad person, Oliver. You aren’t happy that she’s sick. You’re happy that you’ll get to spend more time with William now. The unfortunate reality is that you getting to see William again is because she’s sick. You like the result but not how you’re getting it.” She told him. “You’re conflicted about the situation and that’s totally normal.”

“When did you become so wise?”

“I think it was probably when I became Death. Dealing with the dead, and the dying, kinda puts things in perspective.” She said. “Call her back, tell her you’re free to talk whenever she wants.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready.” He admitted.

“She’s not dead yet. She’s not even very sick yet. it’s just a conversation. And I love you, I really do, but this isn’t about you or how ready you are. I doubt she expects you to say much of anything. She needs to talk, let her.”

Oliver nodded. He knew Felicity was right. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself. Deep down, he was hoping he could be in denial about the situation for a little longer. “I’m gonna go….call her back.” He said, pointing over his shoulder. “How are you feeling by the way? The baby-?”

“Is doing just fine. I feel fine. He or she is growing. And making me want pizza.” She said, pointing to her tummy. “Speaking of the baby, I think I’m gonna call Dr. Schwartz next week and make an appointment. It’ll have been six weeks since my last period, which means it won’t be too early to be going.”

“Great. Do you think we’ll be able to see him or her?” He wondered.

“I hope so. I don’t know a lot about babies or pregnancy. We should be able to hear the heartbeat though.” She answered. “And you’re stalling. Go call Samantha.”

Oliver frowned, unhappy she’d seen through his ruse. He went upstairs and called Samantha. She told him that she and William were coming to Star City in two days. She wanted to introduce Oliver to William properly this time. She also told him there was something very important they needed to discuss. He told her he looked forward to seeing her and awkwardly said goodbye. As soon as she hung up, he began to cry. He knew what she’d tell him but somehow, knowing the conversation was about to happen made the whole thing real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> There won't be a chapter next week, because I will be on vacation.


End file.
